Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 8:

In page 16, line 35, to delete “continuously”.

Again, we discussed the matter fairly extensively on Committee Stage. It is hopefully a point of agreement between all of us that we need to do something about long-term unemployment and that we must take measures that avoid people falling into long-term unemployment or help them to get out of long-term unemployment and back into work. The tax relief proposed for unemployed people who start a new business is a reasonable proposal.

However, I have a difficulty with the requirement that somebody be unemployed for 12 months before he or she can avail of the relief. There is a big problem not just with this relief but also with a number of schemes targeted at the long-term unemployed. There is a requirement that one must be unemployed for a certain period in order to avail of benefits. The alternative would be to allow people to join schemes immediately on losing their jobs so as to prevent them from becoming unemployed for protracted periods. As we all know and as I suspect the Minister of State would acknowledge, the longer one is employed, the more difficult it is to get back to work. It creates anomalies and causes frustration for people. They identify a certain scheme such as the back-to-education scheme which might help them to further their careers or return to work only to be told they cannot join until they have been out of work for one year. Is that not pretty stupid? Since the State has to pay for somebody who is unemployed, why should it not give relief immediately to somebody who wants to do something? Thus, there would be a chance that one would not have to become dependent on social welfare. The Minister of State might say in response that the State must take specific measures to help those who are out of work for longer periods. I agree and believe special assistance and various measures are needed in this regard, but I do not believe the Government's approach is the way to achieve this.

In response to Deputy Pearse Doherty the Minister of State made a point on singling out particular groups, in this case the disabled. He has said the tax code does not work in the way described and that it should be more general. He has also said it cannot be discriminatory in the way described, yet that is precisely the nature of the relief under discussion. It involves the tax code discriminating by stipulating somebody unemployed for more than 12 months can avail of a relief to enable him or her to return to work while, somebody unemployed for six months cannot do so. The latter must remain another six months in unemployment before being able to benefit. That does not make sense. The Minister of State must think of other ways to address the specific problem faced by those who become long-term unemployed through no fault of their own. In so far as the Government is providing a tax incentive designed to prevent people from falling into unemployment or to get them back to work, it should make the relief available to anybody who is unemployed. As soon as a person loses his or her job, he or she should be able to avail of a range of schemes to help him or her to return to work rather than having to wait 12 months to get support.

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