Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy Enright for tabling this Private Members' motion. This afternoon I learned of the imminent closure of Schering-Plough in Bray, County Wicklow, which will lead to the loss of 240 specialist jobs and add to the 10,000 people already unemployed in the county. With unemployment on the rise, we must examine how our social welfare and community support systems operate.

On 3 March, I put down a parliamentary question asking the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if the various unemployment and training social welfare schemes are outdated in the current economic climate in view of the varied profiles of the people applying for State assistance. For example, the back to work allowance is designed to assist the long-term unemployed. It does not, however, define long term. The Minister's reply concluded, "the qualifying conditions will continue to be monitored in the context of the objectives of the scheme and the changing economic circumstances".

We cannot continue playing catch-up. Community welfare officers and social welfare inspectors have informed me they are dealing with many new social welfare recipients, profiles of whom they have never before encountered. Those at the coalface are sending recommendations to their head offices for further assistance, requests which are constantly declined. They are trying to be creative in the current existing structures because they recognise the predicament faced by social welfare recipients.

Deputy Charles Flanagan recently raised the matter of 13 of the 15 State prisons being overcrowded. Last year, 276 people were jailed for failing to repay debt, serving an average of 20 days, which equates to two year's servitude for a criminal. All of these people wanted to pay their debts but such a distinction has not been made. Many of them have been contributors to society, self-employed workers who now cannot get any assistance from the State as they are means-tested.

In the 1990s, there were start-your-own-business initiatives in which people could access seed capital. Now, no small business, even those which are relatively healthy, can get seed capital or credit. People who find themselves in such personal circumstances are being forced to cut into their savings and whittle them down to €20,000. In crude terms, that is not much more than what will bury someone these days. The cost of living is going down but the cost of dying is going up.

We cannot wait until next year to respond; we need to respond now. We need imaginative thinking to help these people who want to help themselves. Much of the responsibility for the current economic state of affairs lies with the Government.

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