Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Regardless of what the Minister says in trying to defend her position, the reduction in core payment from €188 to €144 in respect of persons under 26 years age is a cut. As has been already stated, there are 30 applicants for every job. Nobody wants to remain on the dole or to have to live on €188 per week. It is a poverty income. People do want jobs. The Minister should allow the people concerned to remain on the €188 per week payment, create the jobs about which she speaks by way incentivising employers to take on people or any other system she wishes to put in place instead of trying to do both and using this to back up her position that this is to incentivise young people to go out and get a job at a time when it is difficult to do so.

I ask that the Minister retain the core payment for the under 25s, which is a low income. For a young person to even qualify for jobseeker's benefit his or her family must be on poverty income. I ask the Minister to allow these people some income stability in their lives and to focus on the creation of jobs which pay more than the minimum wage and include proper working conditions.

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