Mr. John McKeon:

That issue comes back to my point about raising awareness. As Mr. Egan has pointed out, employment services are available to everybody. Any person should be able to walk in and be provided with a service. I take the point made by Ms O'Brien that such a situation is not the universal experience. We are doing our best to improve that experience. People should be scheduled to meet a case officer to develop a personal progression plan and be told about the services that are available. Earlier, we were asked to tell people who may be unemployed but not in receipt of any payment that they can still come into the office and deal with us, and we will let them know what is available. Improving awareness of the services available is something that we will seek to have included in the next Pathways policy. A wide range of services are available but people are unaware of them. In the past, when we had the tsunami of unemployment, if we had built awareness and told people to come to us, then they would have had to stand at the end of a queue. As Deputy Ó Snodaigh has pointed out, as the number of unemployed people diminishes, we have a greater capacity to respond to those who would have been called voluntary engagers in the old FÁS days. We now have the scope to build awareness up to a certain level and respond to people as they come to us.

A question was asked about carers. It is important to recognise that carers have a significant income disregard at present and there have been significant changes in terms of the hours they can work while still claiming a carer's payment. A lot of carers are involved in some employment. I do not have the exact percentages with me but I know that they would be involved in employment while providing care. It might be part-time employment, but they receive an income disregard as a consequence. That option is available to all carers. Awareness might be an issue. We must let other carers know that they can work 15 hours a week and there is a fairly generous income disregard. As carers come to the end of their caring duties, they should visit an Intreo office and we will see what can be done.