Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

People on the national employment action plan also have a shorter timeframe. I am working with my colleagues, the Ministers for Education and Science and Enterprise, Trade and Employment, with regard to FÁS and the spare capacity in the institutes of technology, universities and further education courses to see how we can support these people. It can be done through FÁS and through training or through the back to education allowance. We are actively working on this to see how we can facilitate the maximum number of people possible.

The scheme is not cost neutral. Last year, it cost €62 million and it will cost more this year and next as, hopefully, many more people will be on the scheme. People going on the scheme get the maximum rate of the allowance. Therefore, a person on half rate jobseekers allowance for some reason, such as working part-time, will get the maximum rate as soon as he or she qualifies for back to education allowance, along with the book allowance, etc. As late as this morning, I spoke with officials about ensuring that nobody is in any way disadvantaged by virtue of the changes in the criteria for the jobseekers benefit. We have seen to that to ensure the window that has always been allowed will continue to be allowed. My aim and intention are to ensure we encourage as many people as possible, particularly those becoming unemployed, to avail of the back to education scheme.

I will keep the situation under review over the next few months to see how we can support these people.

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