Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

Time does not permit me to go through the various suggestions that I have received from constituents and from groups working in this area. There are six or seven things that could be done and which would not result in a huge cost to the Exchequer, but which would open the scheme up to more people. These people are going to be drawing the dole anyway. People may have received a postgraduate qualification 15 years ago and these qualifications are now fairly irrelevant to the demands of the job market. It makes sense for those people to go back and retrain, but they are precluded from availing of this scheme.

The Joint Committee on Social and Family Affairs should take a look at this in the next few weeks and the Department should participate in a round-table discussion on it and take on board some of its suggestions. I would welcome the Minister's support for that idea.

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