Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I seek clarity on this issue. Is the Minister suggesting that children should go out to work? That, effectively, is what has been said and I want to know whether it is Government policy.

Going through the Bill there seems to be a lack of coherence in the approach of the Government to many of the issues involved. We had the same problem with direct provision. Certainly, the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, has a very different view from the Minister on whether children should be out working or concentrating on being in school. If the Minister wants to proceed with a policy such as this, I urge him to seek the views of teachers. On many occasions it has been said children are asleep in school or are unable to concentrate because they work. I do not have a difficulty if they wish to work — I encourage it to a degree — but the notion that children should work to earn money to meet basic needs is wrong. Certainly, there is nothing wrong with anyone working a few hours' per week but we should be encouraging them to concentrate on being in school. The drop-out rate is already running at approximately 18%; in disadvantaged areas, where the people about whom we are speaking live, it is already far higher than this. Encouraging children, particularly those living in disadvantaged areas, to go out to work amounts, effectively, to discouraging them from staying in school. That is a policy fraught with difficulties and I ask the Minister to re-examine it.

On the amendment, Deputy Stanton made the point that there had been discussions with a view to bringing together the three payments. The Minister has stated clearly that there are difficulties in that regard. I understand and accept this. I have been teasing out the three payments — FIS, CDA and the back to school allowance — with some of the groups represented. Does the Minister intend to bring the discussions to a conclusion in the near future and make changes, or will we talk in perpetuity about the issue? It was one on which in the six months before the general election one could not have listened to "Morning Ireland" without hearing the former Minister, Deputy Brennan, discuss it. We still have not seen any conclusions and I wonder when we will.

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