Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I do not agree at all. A number of popular initiatives have been launched during the Government's period in office. For instance, Momentum is specifically targeted at the long-term unemployed. It means that when people take a course - most courses are up to an academic year in length - they will continue to receive their social welfare payments. At any one there are well over 20,000 people participating in the back-to-education initiative. We also have an extremely popular enterprise scheme. In addition, with the help of the Labour Market Council which I established, we have incentivised employers to give persons on the live register, particularly those who have been on it for a long time, an opportunity to attend interviews and compete for jobs. The JobsPlus scheme which we put in place last year is already catering for over 3,000 individuals. Some 60% to 70% of those who have been taken onto the scheme are unemployed for more than two years, which means that they are long-term unemployed.

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