Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I have been looking at a number of issues, such as the problems encountered by people who qualified a long time ago and whose postgraduate qualifications are no longer relevant to the current market. We need to have a focus on any solutions to these problems, and we could do that in the context of the smart economy. We should be targeting support for people who are doing courses that might ultimately lead to employment, rather than some of the other courses. At the same time, we also have to ensure that we continue to support other people on social welfare payments, such as lone parents and people on disability benefit, to ensure that the back to education allowance facilitates them as well.

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