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

The answer to the Deputy's first question is "Yes". It is still intended that we will have a new scheme in the latter half of the year, which will provide people who do not have work experience with the work experience they need, but it is intended that there would be an employer contribution and they would be paid, at the very least, the minimum wage rate. It will be quite different from JobBridge in that sense.

I do not have any proposals to change the "genuinely seeking work" condition. People receive jobseeker's allowance and jobseeker's benefit on the basis they are genuinely seeking work. If they are not genuinely seeking work, they should either be on a different benefit that is perhaps more appropriate to their circumstances such as disability benefit or they should be signing off. We will continue to have sanctions in those spaces. When it comes to community employment schemes in particular and other schemes, they are and always have been about much more than being an extension of the social welfare system. They provide people with useful training and useful work experience and for many people, particularly in a period of low unemployment, they will be increasingly about social inclusion and less about activating people into the labour market.

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