Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Access to the general back to work enterprise allowance scheme is also being improved. New work placement and graduate placement schemes, which we are devising with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, will ensure that graduates and young people will be able to maintain their social welfare entitlements while gaining work experience. This will be an important element of our programme.

Almost €21.3 billion is being provided for social welfare. This is a significant sum of money. In making decisions in respect of savings the budget for social welfare has ensured that we have not had to cut the rates for social welfare. I appreciate that the decisions made are very difficult, particularly the decision not to pay the December bonus but the alternative was to cut it from more people and to cut it for everybody which would have been particularly difficult.

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