Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

This would, perhaps, be some version of the suggestion made by Senator Quinn to allocate the money to schools. This would then be spent locally and would give local businesses the opportunity to bid for schemes like the book rental scheme or the provision of school uniforms. There is merit in looking at the proposals that have come forward to ensure the money is spent on the children and in Ireland. That is a reasonable objective. Social welfare moneys amount to approximately 16% of the economic spend in the country. This is significant and important. In the west of Ireland in particular, the social welfare spend is probably an even higher proportion of the local economy. Therefore, it is important that we ensure that as much as possible of the social welfare spend is spent on the people who need the money, spent on children and spent within the economy.

On the issue of people in the United Kingdom keeping close to information on jobs in Ireland, as people who have used JobBridge know, it operates via a website. It has taken some time to get JobBridge up and going and for employers to appreciate that it works through a website and for people looking for internships to appreciate that. However, JobBridge is now working reasonably well. With regard to Irish people in London, it should be possible to develop something similar that will allow them to tap in to information about jobs at home. We need employers to put up information on vacancies and to be able to identify people who are not working who would be interested in and suitable for those vacancies. There are great possibilities in terms of using modern technology. I have met some of the people involved in some schemes in England and attended events around St. Patrick's Day and met a number of people offering this kind of scheme there. I also met the UK Ministers involved in these schemes. There is much food for thought in this, but we will not be able to do this until we get our national employment services unit up and going and until the Department integrates our traditional social welfare department, community welfare officers and the FÁS labour services people. If we achieve that integration - we have an ambitious programme for next year and people in the Department are working flat out - there will be many possibilities.

Many people referred to illness benefit. I stress again that some 20 million days are lost to illness each year. This involves handling 300,000 claims a year and takes up the time of approximately 300 civil servants, some of whom might be better employed working on how to prevent fraud, abuse and error in the system. We need to discuss the resource issue. People were concerned about small employers, but I did not hear concerns expressed about large employers who traditionally manage sick pay schemes and sick leave arrangements, whether in the public or private sector. If we are to introduce this, it will require legislation. There will be a detailed discussion. I will be anxious to ensure that the views of small employers in particular are taken into account. Small employers tend to manage illness and issues around it very well. As Senator Quinn indicated, issues arise in regard to illness management in parts of the public sector. What is the point of the Department of Social Protection being responsible for sick pay in the HSE or in other public institutions? We have no control over it. We just pay it. If we can get the management of an enterprise to be responsible for engaging with employees to ensure that illness and absenteeism is kept to a minimum there will be a tremendous gain in terms of productivity for the country in the public and private sectors. We need to have a conversation on the matter.

People, understandably, would like to see improvements, for instance, in how appeals are dealt with. Senator Moloney made an excellent proposal on the domiciliary care allowance; that it should move from 16 years to 18 years of age. Some years ago the then Minister, Ms Mary Hanafin, attempted to do that. At the time I was the Labour Party spokesperson on finance and I strongly supported the move because I know there are many people, in the organisations supporting parents with these issues and among parents, who want change. It would also assist people in being supported and staying on in school and maximising their education. There is a great deal of merit in the proposal. It is certainly something I will examine in the context of the budget and the changes.

Senator Healy Eames referred to Fr. Seán Healy and his proposals on generating additional employment places. There is also merit in that proposal. I strongly suggest to her that she might also speak to her colleague, the Minister for Finance. I am anxious to see those opportunities but they have a cost. All politicians, regardless of party, recognise the value to a local community of community employment schemes and other ways of activating people to contribute at local level. Years ago when there was much unemployment here we had social employment schemes. There is a great deal of merit in such an approach particularly in terms of local authorities and local work. In conjunction with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and the former Minister of State, Deputy Penrose, I have had many conversations about that, but we need the go-ahead from the Minister for Finance to enable those kind of schemes to restart.

We are working to achieve a structure whereby we simplify social welfare and end up with much fewer schemes, disregards, allowances and so on. People of working age who are being supported by the Department broadly fall into three categories of people - jobseekers, people on lone parent's allowances and those who may be ill or have a disability. In the current jobs market they have very little opportunity to get any kind of work even though very often that is what they would like. We must create opportunities in terms of the changes in the system. In an environment where the jobs market is extraordinarily tight we must create other opportunities for people. The jobs initiative that was launched in May has been very successful. To date, the outcomes from the internship scheme are extremely positive. I accept what Senator Ó Clochartaigh said about perhaps opening the scheme to others. The reason it is being confined to jobseekers is that it was the conditionality in regard to the initial IMF programme where extra schemes were created that would help to take people off the live register, namely, people on jobseeker's allowance.

One of the things we should consider for people who are parenting on their own is the approach taken in Scandinavia where the status of someone as a lone parent applies until his or her child has settled in school. After that one is considered a parent. The state does not differentiate between parents who are married or single. Parents and children are taken into account. If a parent is of working age and wants to get a job then all the opportunities are available whereas we tend to put people in a category of "lone parent" which lasts for a long period. We need to have a conversation on the issue.

The development of a lone parent support was in the context of this country 50 years ago. There was a stigma attached and the support for parents, especially women bringing up children on their own, practically closed down the institutions overnight. Now we have moved on. Irish society is different now to how it was in the 1950s and 1960s. Being a lone parent is often an individual's decision. Also, marriages break up and relationships form and re-form. We should consider developing our system in the context of how society has evolved. One of the things we need to do in that context is to look at Scandinavia where there is more child care and more after-schools services. I am concerned that the children of people who are parenting on their own would be seen in schools as being exactly the same as the children of parents who parent together, whether they are married or cohabiting. The focus should be on the parent and the child. To some extent the way the system has developed does not reflect the way society has evolved in recent decades. There is a great deal of opportunity.