Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The people who are already 60 have the ability to stay on it. We already relaxed those rules earlier this year. That is why I say with sincerity that it fills me with sadness that the Deputy would have so little ambition for people who are only in their mid-fifties. This morning at the Committee of Public Accounts the Government was being lashed because we are sending people for a second year on JobPath, yet some people are quite happy, week in, week out, to beg and plead for an extra six, seven, eight and nine years on CE schemes. Now the Deputy wants 12 years. These are activation tools, methods of training people to give them new skills because their old skills do not fit in the current economy, to pass them on to new careers and employment opportunities. If we want to have a conversation about CE schemes as a valuable resource in communities and the public services they are providing in the gaps where the State is not providing them, I would gladly have that conversation with the Deputy because they are a very valuable resource. My God, though, let us be more ambitious for those in their fifties and sixties. The sixties are the new forties. At any rate, I am happy to conduct both reports as provided for in amendments Nos. 11 and 12.

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