Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

Currently, a person who signs on as unemployed signs up for a payment and then visits his or her local FÁS office seeking activation placements and so forth. The Department's aim, which makes a great deal of sense, is to ensure that when a person visits his or her local social welfare office, the officials who deal with placement will be working side by side with those dealing with payments. There are two sides to unemployment. While the income issue is important, we have not stressed the debilitating effect of unemployment on those affected by it. The objective, therefore, is to have a one-stop-shop.

The Deputy asked whether the Department will have a policymaking role. The Department will make all policy in this realm. The only policy element being moved elsewhere is the national social inclusion policy which is transferring, with the family functions, to the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. The Department will continue to feed into that process, although the lead Department will be the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. Policy on all activation and social welfare issues as well as community schemes and so forth will be made in my Department.

The Deputy asked how the proposals will work. For years, I have argued that enforced idleness is not a great policy. We spend €3 billion or €4 billion annually on unemployment payments and a further €500 million on activation. My Department, rather than two Departments, will treat this money as one pot. I want to use activation measures to differentiate between those who are genuinely unemployed and those who may not be genuinely unemployed and use savings arising from this approach to create more activation and opportunities for people to be gainfully involved in community work and so on. That is the where the big change will come about. Having all the money in one place will make a radical difference in that respect.

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