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

I would state again that no decisions on the budget or the welfare package have been made but obviously the priorities will be informed both by what is in the programme for Government and in the confidence and supply agreement with the main opposition parties. Therefore, what is in those will be prioritised but no decisions have been made.

Regarding unemployment, the target is to reduce unemployment to between 5% and 6% and to reduce long-term unemployment - there will always be a certain number of people who are in between jobs or out of work for some reason - to less than 2.5%, which is a target we can achieve but it is not one that will be easy to achieve. Those targets are updated and reviewed from time to time.

Deputy Howlin was correct in what he said. The participation rate - it is a different thing - is the number of adults who are working or involved in the workforce. Our participation rates are still relatively low by European standards and they are lower than they were the last time the economy was this strong. We want to see those increase significantly in the years ahead. The Action Plan for Jobless households, published by the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, very much sets out how we can do that in terms of extending activation to more groups of people and increase participation rates.

In terms of participation rates by people with disabilities, I very much agree with other Members of the House that I want to see the number of people with disabilities who are able to take part in the workforce improve in the time ahead. A number of measures have already been taken in that respect. Only last week the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, and the Minister, Deputy Regina Doherty, announced €10 million in funding for pre-activation supports for people with disabilities to assist them to enter the workforce. Before I finished my term of office as Minister for Social Protection, I changed the rules around the free travel pass to provide that if a person in receipt of a disability allowance or an invalidity payment takes up employment, he or she will retain their free travel pass for five years. Also, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection is changing some rules around the disability allowance because many people in receipt of that allowance fear that if they take up a job and it does not work out, they will find it hard to get that allowance again. The Department will change the rules to provide that a person can have their claim suspended for a period of time, 12 weeks or longer, to enable them to try working and if it works out for them, that is great. If it does not, they will be automatically reinstated on their disability allowance. In addition to that, we will change the income limits around medical cards for people who are on disability allowance and other disability payments. From the survey we have done, we have found that the biggest single fear people with disabilities have is that they will lose their medical card if they take up employment. We have already agreed to change the income limits for people who are on disability payments. The Minister for Health intends to legislate for that in 2018. We will also raise the target for the percentage of people with disabilities employed in the public service from 3% to 6%.

4 o’clock

I am delighted to see the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection in the House because her Department is almost at the figure of 6%, but other Departments and agencies are not doing quite so well. One of the things we discussed at the Cabinet committee was having a bespoke recruitment campaign or bespoke access to positions for people with disabilities because if somebody who has a disability goes up in an interview against somebody who does not, he or she will be at a disadvantage. Perhaps what we should do is have dedicated positions or a dedicated entry route for people with disabilities. They were the things that we discussed and on which we agreed to make progress at the Cabinet committee. The main discussion was about the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. I have explained the reason for the delay in that regard.

On the young jobseekers issue, it is welcome that the number of young people who are unemployed is falling rapidly and much faster than the general level of unemployment, which is extremely encouraging. In Great Britain and Northern Ireland, for example, the jobseeker's payment for young people is £50 or £60 which is unbelievably low and it is not the case that welfare rates are set in London. One of the changes we have made is that any young jobseeker who does anything else will receive the full adult payment. If he or she take a place on a community employment, Tús or Gateway scheme or goes back to education or if he or she is a carer, he or she will receive the full adult payment.

See this speech in context