Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I support the motion. This is an important opportunity for the Government to consider what it must do to get the economy back on track and tackle rapidly rising unemployment. I wish to focus on one part of the Fine Gael motion, the back-to-education allowance.

We have seen consistent losses of employment. On 8 October I outlined the effects on my constituency. Each Deputy is conscious of problems in their constituency. The figure provided by Deputy Varadkar of 720 jobs lost per week brings the issue home. Often, more attention is given to big announcements of a group of job losses but everyday losses are causing serious concern.

The criteria for the back-to-education allowance must be changed, but not in the negative way they were changed in the budget where 500 places on the scheme were lost. They must be changed in a positive way to allow people to participate. The current scheme, which the Government stands over and which the Minister, Deputy Hanafin, and her predecessor, Deputy Cullen, stood over, forces people on to the live register. If one wants to avail of the back-to-education allowance, one must be unemployed for 12 months in most instances. The point about major job losses is that most often in these situations people receive a redundancy package. If there is a small job loss, such as one or two jobs in a shop or restaurant or a local business, the people affected often do not receive redundancy packages. Such people must wait for the full 12 months before obtaining the back-to-education allowance. If one is made unemployed in August or September, effectively one might have to wait a further year before accessing third level education because of the way it falls.

The second case that must be addressed is that of the person on the minimum wage who is excluded from availing of the allowance. This is forcing people on to the live register. On the minimum wage, one earns approximately €346 per week and on jobseeker's allowance, with rent allowance and the medical card, one receives €347 per week, €1 better off than the person on the minimum wage. On the minimum wage, one cannot avail of the back-to-education allowance unless one gives up that job. To encourage people to do that in order to avail of the education system is deplorable and negative. It is driving people into unemployment.

Youth employment must be seriously addressed. The Government has made much of addressing the issue of lone parents and unemployment by providing 50 facilitators who will work on a one-to-one basis, according to the Minister, with all lone parents. When these people wake up tomorrow morning and hear the live register figures they will wonder how on earth this can be done. The Minister is saying that each of the facilitators will deal on a one-to-one basis with 8,000 people, almost a quota in most constituencies. This is impossible and cannot happen. The level of co-operation between the Department of Social and Family Affairs and FÁS is insufficient. The Government must answer questions about the facilitators and the back-to-education allowance.

See this speech in context