Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

With regard to the means testing for people on jobseeker's allowance and so on, I am more than willing to engage in a detailed debate on all of these issues in committee. I would look forward to invitations from the committee and we can spend afternoons going through this in detail. Members will find me very open to ideas and suggestions as to how we can improve all of these schemes.

There are huge limitations with regard to finance but I believe we can spend the existing money in a much more constructive way that will create the incentive to do things rather than, as social welfare has often worked in the past, being a total disincentive to activity. I look forward to a detailed and intense debate with the Deputy and to examining all of the proposals she might put forward in this regard.

See this speech in context