Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

I thank the Minister for his response. I appreciate that he will come back to the House to provide us with very valuable information. Some work has been done on this area through the National Economic and Social Forum. I look forward to seeing evidence of the impact of the disregards. Does the Minister know if there is successful entry into the workforce by people on social welfare as a result of this? Is the tapering working and is there evidence that people are coming off social welfare dependency and into the workforce?

I recently met a woman in my office in Nenagh who showed me a letter she had received. It stated that she was 57 cent over the income limit for a dietary allowance. I thought that was a classic.