Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I understand that. My question is for the Minister, Deputy Regina Doherty. Many of today's questions were not. We have had many problems with JobPath, which I will not get into as I wish to raise a specific issue relating to JobPath. A man in my constituency works for a company that put its workers on a three-day week when the hard times came. It did not sack them but tried to work with them. He is continually being sent to JobPath because he is only working three days a week. The rules say that one must work for more than 30 hours a week to avoid that. Some leniency must be allowed in such a situation. This man has worked for the company for 28 years. If he got a job somewhere else he would lose a redundancy package to which he would be entitled in the not-too-distant future. It does not make sense for him to look for a job somewhere else, yet he is continually called back to JobPath. Could the Minister consider introducing some flexibility and reduce the timeframe from 30 hours a week, possibly down to 25 hours a week as it would suit many people?

See this speech in context