Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is my objective, as Minister for Social Protection, as I have told the Deputy, to get as many people as possible back into work and thereby significantly improve their income and that of their households and to improve the life chances of any children they may have. The social welfare system in this country is strong and is built on social solidarity and a social contract.

A lot of people lost their jobs as a result of the disastrous crash in the economy, which was engineered by the previous Government. We want to get as many people of working age as we can back into work. That is not a difficulty because many people are anxious to return to work, education and training. Many young people are delighted to take up apprenticeships. From the manner in which the Deputy talks about people who rely on income from social welfare, one would think that such people had no ambition whatsoever in terms of opportunities for themselves or their children.

I have listened to Sinn Féin's mantra on social welfare and its hostility to work for so long that if it was a song we would all be able to sing it. No wonder west Belfast has the highest incidence of all the problems Deputy Kelleher was talking about as regards poverty and whole range of social difficulties.

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