Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am not undermining it in any way. I put it to the Tánaiste that his Government was dragged kicking and screaming into reversing the changes that the previous Fine Gael Government brought forward. It is certainly welcome that in time many people will receive a reimbursement of money that should have been due to them. Most of those people are women who worked in the home raising their families, having a break in their employment service. We welcome this. It is one of the things our party has called for, but is the Government leaving another cohort of people behind? The Minister, the Tánaiste and the Government need to ensure that they are not leaving people behind while it is dealing with part of the issue with a small step in that direction to rectify the situation. The Minister, Deputy Doherty's approach is leaving propel behind. I ask the Government to commit to putting forward a plan to reverse the cuts in their entirety. We accept that the proposed change is a step forward but we will not accept that other people who may lose out who may have been unemployed at the time, who may have been self-employed or who may have been training. This could be some 40,000 additional people. The matter needs to be addressed.

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