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

I understand why Deputy O'Dea has brought this to the floor of the House and I know it is not a political issue for him at all. Deputy O'Dea and other Deputies and Senators from the area have raised this matter directly with Ministers because they genuinely care.

This employment opportunity has been very beneficial for those who avail of the scheme and the support. To be clear, the approach to this is not in any way a cost saving exercise from the Department or the Government.

The design of the wage subsidy scheme and what it is there to achieve in this regard is to encourage the employment of people who have a disability into employment in a commercial enterprise. It is not designed as a business or enterprise support. To fit into the design of the scheme it therefore must be an incentive to encourage employment. It is not to support the business. The business has to be able to stand alone on its own two feet as a commercial operation. That is part of the issue here.

This does not mean that we cannot try to find other solutions. The Deputy suggested one scheme but the wage subsidy scheme and the community employment scheme are other solutions. The Deputy will be aware, and I can inform the House, that our Department and the various arms and agencies of Government have been engaged directly with the unions, the employees and their families along with the Rehab Group to try to work our way through this to find any solution. We would be very happy to do that and it is something we would like to do. Deputy O'Dea is aware of that. He spoke directly on this issue with the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, as have I. We will go through it. The Department officials and the Intreo offices locally have engaged and would like to be able to find solutions either to try to keep these jobs or to find new jobs, and certainly to work with all involved to do that. This is what we are committed to doing. The request to link the wage subsidy scheme to the minimum wage is not the real issue here. I am aware that it has been put forward as a genuine attempt to find a solution but that is not the space we are in. We will try to work with the Deputy to find other solutions also.

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