Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

Does the Minister accept the budget should be judged on two issues, whether it is fair and whether it helps the economy and jobs? The public has given a clear answer on the first and the budget is clearly not fair. With regard to jobs, not only is the Government making matters more difficult for people who find themselves unemployed in terms of cutting their entitlements, but the budget has done nothing to help them to get back into employment.

Does the Minister accept the priority must be to ensure that people who become unemployed now do not become the long-term unemployed of the future? What is the justification for the time lag between a person becoming unemployed and being able to avail of the back to education or back to enterprise allowances? Surely in this day and age the priority must be to try to enable unemployed people to get back into work, enterprise or training as quickly as possible. Why does the Minister maintain those excessively restrictive rules?

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