Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The legislation provides that a person can be refused a payment if he or she turns down an offer of employment. Therefore, a person's application can be reviewed to ascertain if he or she is genuinely seeking work. There is no provision in any legislation to allow for the payment to be reduced. Therefore, we need to bring forward an amendment in the next legislation which will allow for that reduction not only for people who have failed to seek employment, which could be covered to some degree by taking the payment from them, but for people who also refuse to go on a course which might help them to get employment. Therefore, the measure is linked not only to employment but to preparation for work or activation, to use that awful word which seems to have no meaning. That is the reason I want to link those two areas.

The new social welfare Bill will be published and passed in the spring. It will take into account what Senator Norris has suggested, which refers specifically to a job, but I also want such provision to include suitable training. One could turn down many jobs that are not suitable, but one might never get a suitable job if one does not have suitable training. This measure is intended to encourage people in that direction.