Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy's question is targeting an area that is important for us all, probably because of his time as Minister of State with responsibility for social welfare. It is important that, in providing supports through the Departments of Education and Skills, Employment Affairs and Social Protection, and Business, Enterprise and Innovation, we ensure that nobody falls between the cracks. The Deputy will have seen in the July stimulus plan that some of the conditions around access to those supports were relaxed so people could avail of supports much quicker to eliminate some of those gaps to which the Deputy referred. In addition, the Minister with responsibility for further and higher education, research, innovation and science, Deputy Harris, will this week announce an extra 10,000 place on various courses, including skills conversion courses through Springboard and apprenticeships. All the criteria to get onto those types of courses have been slightly tweaked and changed.

It is important that our public sector system responds when Deputies bring forward clear examples of failures or gaps. We must respond and address them quickly. We have seen some reaction to that. For example, the criteria for eligibility for the Christmas bonus this year have been changed to include people who have been receiving social welfare payments for four months, down from 15 months. That recognises that we are in a changing environment. The system can respond and it is important that we address issues when they are highlighted. I would ask the Deputy to bring forward examples if he comes across them and the Tánaiste, our colleagues and I will be happy to address them as well as we can.

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