Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will bring the comments of the Deputy to the attention of the Minister. Pathways to Work represents the Government's policy statement on labour market activity, which is committed, as I said, to more focused intervention. Given the limited public resources, it is essential that these activation measures are targeted. The current cohort of people who are long-term unemployed are a particular focus for interventions. More than 87,000 education and employment support programme places were provided by the Department in 2012. There are 450,000 State-funded places providing further education and higher education and training. There are other activation initiatives available to unemployed people which are not contingent on social welfare status, such as FÁS training courses. The Government spent almost €1 billion on employment supports in 2012 and will expend more than that in 2013. A significant number of schemes, such as the back to education allowance scheme, the rural social scheme and community employment schemes, allow spouses or partners to apply for schemes based on their spouses' primary social welfare payments. I will happy to bring the Deputy's comments to the attention of the Minister.

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