Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The 11,000 people who have in the past three years made the transition have been able to avail of dedicated services from the Department of Social Protection - it is now a national employment service - that help people to access education, training, work experience and employment, including community employment. Last year we increased the number of community employment places by 2,000. We opened new schemes such as Tús to give people one year of experience in working in their communities. The Deputy saw the figures yesterday and the number on the live register is down to 10.1%. While this is still too high, it is a huge improvement on the almost 15% figure when we entered government. The back to work family dividend will mean €30 per week per child in continuing welfare payment support for one year and €15 per week in the second as people move into work to help them with the transition. This is in addition to family income supplement which, as the Deputy knows, is an enormous help to those working part time or on low pay.

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