Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Perry, to the House and regret that the Minister for Social Protection had to leave as there are a number of issues I wished to bring to her attention. I have called for a debate on youth unemployment in this House and was hoping to address that issue with her today. The Minister mentioned earlier that there are between 70 and 80 programmes under the aegis of her Department but I will only be able to refer to a number of these in the limited time available to me. In her speech the Minister referred to the Irish Presidency of the European Union and her plans to advance the EU youth guarantee. In the last week, however, the financial transaction tax has been linked by the Austrian and French Governments to the proposed EU youth guarantee, which raises a lot of concerns, given that the Irish Government has said it will not sign up to the proposed financial transaction tax. I am concerned about where the EU youth guarantee will go, especially in the context of our very high youth unemployment rate, if it is linked to the financial transaction tax.

The Minister also referred to community employment, CE, schemes in her speech. Yesterday, I met members of the troika, with whom I raised the issue of youth unemployment. They told me that they had encouraged the Government to look into measures to tackle unemployment and long-term unemployment in particular. They said they encouraged the Government to provide services around upskilling and training, especially for those who were previously employed the construction sector. In that context, the community employment schemes have massive potential. The original purpose of the CE schemes was to counteract the drift into long-term unemployment. They were targeted at those who are over 25 and were focused on the older, low-skilled job seeker. Perhaps something could be done to include those under 25 in the schemes now, given that we have so many young unemployed people, many of whom have been on the live register for long periods of time. What can be done to modernise the CE schemes to include young people and to make them relevant to them? The CE schemes could provide them with the skills, training and experience they need while also enabling them to enhance their communities.

My party has raised the issue of poverty-proofing on numerous occasions. More must be done to make sure that all our legislation is poverty-proofed and that measures taken by Government do not disproportionately affect those on low and middle incomes. We must ensure that cuts and tax increases are not driving people further into poverty. During the debate on the Local Government (Household Charge) Bill, we proposed an amendment based on the criteria used by the ESRI to measure poverty, so that we can know that measures being implemented through legislation are not pushing people further into poverty. I await the Minister's response on that issue when she returns to the House.

The Minister also made reference to the domiciliary care allowance in her speech and to the fact that it is currently under review. I have questions regarding the criteria used to assess eligibility for this allowance, and specifically the requirement that the child needs "care and attention and/or supervision substantially in excess of another child of the same age". I am not sure if other Senators have had this experience, but I have had many people contact me who have applied for a domiciliary care allowance, whose child does need more care and supervision than other children of the same age, but they are hitting a brick wall and are being refused the allowance. Is it the case that the eligibility criteria are being examined as part of the review? The qualification criteria seem to be especially stringent and many families who are caring for children are very frustrated. The social protection system is supposed to help the most vulnerable in our society. If it is not helping them, what is the point of it? In that context, I ask that the Minister provide more details on the review and I look forward to her response on her return.