Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

A person in that category will be selected for the employment action plan after 53 days on the live register, and directed to FÁS for appropriate training, education and jobseeking interventions.

It is important to note that the following people will not be affected by the measure: existing claimants, young people with dependent children, those who have paid sufficient PRSI contributions to qualify for jobseeker's benefit, and people transferring to jobseeker's allowance immediately after exhausting their entitlement to jobseeker's benefit or those transferring from the disability allowance directly to jobseeker's allowance.

Where an existing jobseeker's allowance claimant aged 24 or under, being paid the full adult rate, gets a job and leaves the allowance but loses the job and ends up back on jobseeker's allowance within 12 months, he or she will be entitled to the full rate of up to €196 again, rather than €100 or €150 a week. If that was not done, there would be little incentive for those currently on jobseeker's allowance to take up offers of work. The rationale for the change is straightforward. Receiving the full adult rate of jobseeker's payment at a young age without a strong financial incentive to engage in education or training can lead to welfare dependency. It is considered particularly necessary to provide 20 to 21 year old jobseekers with a strong financial incentive to engage in education or training. It could be also argued that people aged 24 or under without child dependants do not need an income of €196 per week and that the current income differential between young jobseekers and third level students is not justifiable. The argument has been also made that people who have worked all their lives and who receive €196 per week should get more or that someone who has never worked should not get the same amount.

The new reduced jobseeker's allowance rate for 20 to 21 year olds amounts to €5,200 per annum and the reduced rate for 22 to 24 year olds amounts to €7,800 per annum. That is more than is payable to such young people if they attend college away from home. It is worth noting that the United Kingdom pays a reduced rate of just £50.95 per week to jobseekers aged 24 and under.

See this speech in context