Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I support many of the contributions of previous speakers, especially comments on the fairness of this social welfare legislation. Many families depend solely on social welfare to provide for all their needs. For this reason, the Government has protected core social welfare rates in successive budgets. As the Minister noted, in a time of unprecedented crisis we are standing by those who are most vulnerable. In difficult times, when tough decisions must be made, we must salute the Government for standing by the most vulnerable, namely, the unemployed and those who depend on social welfare payments. I am pleased to note that Ireland's social welfare system ranks highly when compared with other European Union countries.

I ask the Minister to clarify how many of the 400,000 people who are registered as unemployed are engaged in some form of work? Is the figure 50,000, 60,000 or perhaps 100,000? This matter needs to be clarified.

It is vital that the Government ensures everything possible is done to enable people who wish to return to work to retrain. Blocklayers, plasterers and other skilled building workers need to be retrained because the construction industry accounts for only a small percentage of gross output. I could cite many projects in my constituency which are unable to find people to engage in training. Only last week, I attended a function in my home town of Cashel at which I met people who could not fill training positions. Something is wrong with the system and the Department should address it.

I concur with Deputy Calleary's comments on the post office network. The Joint Committee on Transport and Communications, which I chair, produced a detailed report on the future of the network. We found that the social welfare contract is one of the key factors keeping post offices open. While I accept the Minister is bound by certain rules and regulations and the need for transparency, given the vital importance of post offices to rural areas, I ask her to ensure social welfare contracts remain with An Post.

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