Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To be helpful, I shall respond to Senator Reilly on the issue of youth unemployment. I welcome the youth guarantee scheme proposed by the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, which is aimed at directing those under 25 years of age into education, training or employment. I would like the scheme extended to those under 30 years of age. The Minister is appearing at the Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection at 10 a.m., which is a good place to ask questions of the Minister. I intend to focus on the issue there.

My question to the Leader is on the hullabaloo around allowances. Everybody was aghast at the weekend as to the reason the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, could cut only one of 1,100 allowances. I ask the Leader to invite the Minister to the House because we need to ask him what went wrong. Mr. David Begg has said that some allowances should go. We must be independent as a Government and cannot expect to be directed by certain groups. We all know that in politics we are at risk of that but there is a robust case for some allowances to be directed into core pay, for example, the allowance for a principal teacher is an addition to the core pay of a teacher. However, there are some ridiculous allowances. We are facing huge cuts to services in the budget and we do not want a two-tier society.