Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will first give the officials an opportunity to obtain the information on a publication date. Deputy O'Dea knows of the significant forum that took place. Various groups contributed to the changes in the budget - they highlighted the issue of the re-establishment of the Christmas bonus and matters relating to child benefit and the living alone allowance. Deputy O'Dea met these groups, as did I, but the economy is fragile.

I accept Deputy Boyd Barrett's point because we are all interested in the same thing, though we may approach it in different ways. The Deputy has a different view from mine in some respects, and we will always have that disagreement, but I accept that the vast majority of Deputies are interested in getting people back to work. A job with a fair day's pay for a fair day's work is the best way out of poverty. I will work hard over the next 14 to 15 months to get as many long-term unemployed people as possible back to work through schemes that have been quite successful, such as JobsPlus, which grew significantly in the last budget.

I listened to the debate on this earlier, and do not have much to add to what was said by the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton. I do not propose to accept these amendments.

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