Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy mentioned the case of people who want to do home help work for two or three hours per morning five days per week as opposed to working for three full days. This issue has been raised with me by these organisations as well. The aim is to get people into full-time work, not to subsidise employers because that could have unintended consequences.

There are more people working than ever before and the Deputy acknowledged that. Unemployment has never been lower and we continue to look at all of the different supports to try to get people back into work. There have been a number of different schemes. There was the pilot scheme to extend community employment eligibility to qualified adults. That commenced in 2023 and has now been rolled out right across the country. The aim is to bring more people who are currently unemployed, but dependent on welfare payments, into the workforce. The process will advise and open up opportunities for individuals to participate in community employment schemes, providing the qualified adults with valuable work experience, and that particularly applies to women. I will come back in again if I am over time.

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