Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I concur with Deputy Penrose about the self-employed. During the crash, many businesses went to the wall. Many people who invested every penny and every hour they had into their businesses faced terrible times. The self-employed were treated like someone from Mars when they tried to get social welfare, even when many of them had paid a lot of tax. There was an ingrained sense among some that the self-employed had to be wealthy. They may have lost everything, however.

I welcome the earned income tax credit to the value of €550 as the first step in getting equality on this issue. The whole system needs to change for the self-employed. The self-employed are not afraid to pay PRSI and whatever extra. However, it must be ensured that a self-employed person whose business fails is not left lingering in the social welfare system. When one goes into a social welfare office, one is not going in for the craic. One is going because one needs assistance. To be left for months in limbo is inhuman.

While I acknowledge the €3 increase for old age pensioners, we should have gone a step further to help them. These are the people who kept the country going until the next generation took over. Someday, we will all be looking at a pension. The pensioners are vulnerable and should be looked after.

We need to start thinking outside the box for employment creation. We may need to put in new systems to get people back to work. There are many computer courses available. However, if someone wants to go into an apprenticeship to be a mechanic or a chippy, for example, there are obstacles in their way. One could give them a certain amount of their social welfare payment and allow them to get a trade. With green shoots of recovery here and there, the opportunities for these skills will emerge again. We have lost many skills. We need to look outside the box at creating new ways of giving people a chance, rather than just putting everybody on a computer course. Not everyone might be suited to such courses. Some of those people may be gifted with their hands, for example, and we must make sure we facilitate them getting back to work.

We are bringing people in from other countries for work. We will have to look at where we are going in ensuring the people who are unemployed here get back to work. There is something amiss. We need to put our finger on the pulse to make sure the 200,000 people unemployed get work.

The Government has made the farm assist scheme more complicated. In Donegal, for example, a small farmer may go out on a fishing boat for a month or two or work in a processing plant. Changes to eligibility moved these farmers to the jobseeker payment, further complicating the system. There has been much manoeuvring around this, with many of these farmers losing the farm assist scheme payment.

The rural social scheme, RSS, introduced by Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív years ago, did marvellous work around the country. North, south, east and west, the RSS workers are recognised everywhere for the work they did. There are other schemes and people have ideas. We need to ensure that we are prepared to take risks. We need to find out why someone is not returning to work. We need to put our finger on the pulse and ensure this is addressed.

I will not keep the Minister of State, Deputy Humphreys, here all evening, except to say one more thing. When the measure was introduced the argument was made that we did not have the money, but we are telling youngsters we will give them €100. It is hard for them to live on it unless they are living at home. If we are honest about it, it is virtually impossible for them. We are basically giving them a one-way ticket out of the country. We need to bring kids back into our country. We need to bring back the generation we have lost. I hope the Minister of State is open to looking at new ideas and taking risks because the end game is to bring down the unemployment figures.

See this speech in context