Marie Moloney (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, on securing funding for the EU youth guarantee. It means ¤3 billion will be spent on labour activation programmes for the under 25s across Europe.

While I welcome the establishment of a working group to examine a replacement scheme for the mobility allowance and understand the legalities of the issue, I am concerned that anything other than a monetary payment to mobility allowance recipients, particularly in rural areas, will not work. For example, a young person in receipt of the allowance who goes out to socialise with his or her friends may not go home until 1 o'clock in the morning. Where is the public transport to take this young person home? They will need a monetary payment to pay for a special taxi to get home. Will the Leader set aside time to discuss this matter?

The debate on the jobs initiative showed we all have ideas and proposals. It would be good if we could collate our proposals on the new allowance across the parties and present them to the working group. I am sure we could find somewhere in the schedule - either we sit longer or on a day we are meant to be off - to have a debate to collate our ideas on the replacement allowance. We should also ask the Minister to have a Member of this House on the working group as we all have ideas to offer.