Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I welcome that. In the proposals put to the Minister by the Department how was the scheme thought up? Was it devised as a mechanism to save money from illness benefit payments or was it devised as a mechanism to assist people to get back into the workforce? There is a big difference between them. The thought process behind it could inform us very much prior to the next debate. Does the Minister have a timetable for the introduction of the scheme? There were suggestions from the Department of a pilot project. Has any progress been made in that regard? What would be the practicalities of that?

See this speech in context