George Lee (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

One of the major issues in this Bill concerns young people and discrimination on the basis of age. It is clear this is a new measure in the social welfare Bill. The treatment of people between 20 and 25 is based purely on age. The Equality Act is key legislation. Under this legislation, it is not legal to discriminate on the basis of age unless one can find objective justification for it. Has the Government taken legal opinion on the issue of objective justification for discriminating between a 24 year old and a 25 year old in respect of jobseeker's allowance? Will the Minister for Social and Family Affairs publish the legal opinion highlighting the objective justification for this discrimination? Can the Minister assure us this is not illegal? This comes from EU law.

I refer to our Constitution, under which all people should be held equal in the eyes of the law. This focuses on the differences in capacity, whether physical, moral or of social function. It is conceivable that the State can differentiate if some justification can be found in respect of differences in capacity physical, moral or social function. In respect of this discriminatory legislation, has the Minister received any legal opinion on the differences in the moral, physical and social functions of a 24 year old and a 25 year old? On what basis is it conceivable that the differentiation between someone who is 24 and someone who is 25 can be made on the basis of fairness, justice and our Constitution? It strikes at the heart of fairness and it undermines the thrust of the whole social welfare Bill. Suddenly, this year, one can say there is a difference between two people of different ages, whether 21 and 25, 22 and 25 and most particularly 24 and 25. Is there some change in physical appearance or skill? All are fully qualified and most likely have experience. They have lots of things going on in their lives and most likely they have the same pain and sense of letdown as victims of the economic collapse, due to the economic decisions of the Government in recent years and the way it blew the boom, something to which these young people were not party. In what way is it conceivable to find objective justification for the discriminatory legislation to make a distinction between these people? This requires an answer before anyone can proceed to vote for this legislation.

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