Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

It is very disappointing that the Minister does not propose to reform FIS. It has never been as important as at present, when many families are suffering a reduction in their pay as a result of reduced hours or reduced pay rates. Does the Minister accept there is a real problem with the incentive to work, in particular for families with young children? There were no changes in the last two budgets other than small compensation measures for the reductions in child benefit. There are real problems at present, and all Members come across cases on a regular basis, increasingly so in recent times, where it is really not worth a family's while to go out and work because of low pay. For that reason, I ask the Minister to give serious consideration to this issue.

We should be encouraging as many people as possible to move from welfare to work but the Minister has placed obstacles in the way of many families. I ask her to consider reforming the scheme. For example, the 19-hour rule is not necessarily fair. I came across a group of workers recently who work 37 hours a fortnight, and I know of other workers who work three hours a day, five days a week. There must be flexibility in the scheme if we are to encourage people to avail of any work opportunities that exist. Similarly, the scheme is not available to the self-employed.

I ask the Minister to give consideration to reforming the scheme in these two areas in particular. What everybody should be trying to achieve is that those obstacles that exist for people who wish to move from welfare to work are removed.

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