Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am glad that the Deputy acknowledged the work of Deputy Ó Cuív when he was Minister and when he brought in that scheme. He brought in a number of imaginative and creative schemes for rural Ireland. I was responsible for bringing in the six-year rule in its first form when I was Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to deal with people of a certain age who were coming off schemes and to exempt them from coming off schemes. That said, I understand that the Minister is looking at the six-year rule because I can understand why numbers and participation rates are probably problematic, given the fact that the economic recovery plan, which was published by the Government, has been successful to the extent that over 2.5 million people are working. Notwithstanding all the challenges we face, that has been a significant development, much earlier than we thought it would happen according to the recovery plan, and there are a lot of vacancies so there must be pressure on the schemes.

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