Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are going to look at the rules and make them more suitable for current times. As unemployment goes down, many of these schemes become as much about social inclusion as they do about employment activation.

However, the Deputy should bear in mind that if people are allowed to stay longer in such schemes, say three or four years, it prevents others from getting on them. No matter how many schemes there are, the places are finite. He should also bear in mind that we want to avoid people ending up in a cycle of scheme training welfare. We do not want people to end up on schemes for too long. People can already be on schemes for up to six years in their lives, which is quite a long time.

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