Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

I said at the outset I fully support the thrust of the policy to ensure school leavers - 18 and 19 year olds - do not go straight on to the dole and that when they come out of school, they go into further education or training. My concern is about the manner in which the Minister is providing for that. It is a very strange way to bring about those changes. One would have expected a short amendment stating that where a jobseeker is offered a course and fails to participate in it without good reason, his or her jobseeker's allowance will be halved. That would have been the obvious way to do it.

For some reason, the Minister decided to start off by cutting jobseeker's allowance. As it stands, from 1 May, no jobseeker of 18 or 19 years of age will be entitled to jobseeker's allowance. He or she will get the half rate. The Minister is starting from the point of view of saving money but the manner in which she is doing it shows what she is about. It is about saving money and not about activation. That is the issue.

I agree with 95% of the policy but my criticism is that the way in which the Minister is legislating for that does not provide the kind of flexibility required. In two weeks time, every 18 and 19 year old will go on to the half rate. The Minister will not be in a position to offer courses to all of those people. There will be many circumstances in which the courses offered will not be suitable. The Minister will certainly get what Deputy Enright spoke about where people will be forced to do courses merely to qualify for the full rate payment, or the equivalent of that. There will be a lot of such nonsense. It will be a case of square pegs in round holes with people signing up for courses for the sake of getting the money. There will be all this rigmarole about how one validates that they were there and so on. Many will be wasting their time because they will only be doing it for the sake of getting the full payment. This has not been thought through.

There will be many reasons the courses recommended for people will not be suitable. They could be several miles away from their home and, as has been said, there may not be any public transport and people may not have a way to get there. The officer will say that someone must do a course if he or she wants to qualify, although in practical terms, he or she will not be able to participate in the course. There will also be people who will not be able to go for other reasons, including personal or health issues.

I am not suggesting one let people off lightly. People should be expected to participate in the course for their payment but there are exceptions. Representations were made to the Minister in regard to people coming out of care and she spoke eloquently about that when she proposed her own amendment. She said she must provide for people who are vulnerable. Of course she must do so which is the point I make. What the Minister proposes is fine for 95% to 98% of people, and I have no argument with that. However, she must allow flexibility to provide for people who are vulnerable.

One category of vulnerable people are those coming out of care, for which the Minister made special provision with which we all agree. However, there are other categories of vulnerable people. Saying to them next week that she is cutting their income in half will not help those people. It will cause huge difficulty for many who, for one reason or another, will genuinely not be able to participate in a course. That is why the approach the Minister has taken is entirely wrong and where the assumption will be made that everybody will be on the half rate unless they go on a course. Why did the Minister not do it the other way? She is not being in any way consistent because she has already recognised there are vulnerable people and that she must make special provision for them. However, there is no flexibility in this Bill.

We will end up with a small number of vulnerable people in vulnerable circumstances who will be placed in more vulnerable circumstances because the Minister is going to reduce their income by 50%. That is wrong and she should not do that. She should legislate in a more effective and understanding manner. That flexibility should be built into the Bill. She has made a mistake in the approach she has taken to this.

It would have been easy to deal with this. Nobody is suggesting the Minister list a load of categories of different types of vulnerable people. She should have provided flexibility by leaving the full rate of the jobseeker's allowance in place and said that if people are offered a course and if it is a reasonable offer but they refuse to take it, their allowance will be cut. That would have been the way to deal with it. This is a mistake and it will lead to serious hardship for a small number of very vulnerable people. As Minister for Social and Family Affairs, she should not do that.

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