Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We are talking here about a mutual obligation, namely, the State supporting people who have, unfortunately, lost their job but the other side of that relationship is a commitment and an undertaking from the person on jobseeker's allowance that they will engage in a meaningful way when offers are made to them in regard to various opportunities for education, training and engaging with the different schemes that have been established by the Government, including participating in service to their community or service more generally through Tús.

For most people on the live register, the engagement is not only voluntary, but is actively sought. A small number of people choose not to engage, not to turn up to appointments and not to be available to discuss with social welfare officers how they might be assisted to get back to work. In the case of this small proportion of people we need to have sanctions available so if they decide to simply collect the money, but not engage with attempts by the Department on behalf of their fellow citizens and taxpayers to help them get back into education, training or work, then sanctions will be applied. This is a perfectly reasonable arrangement. The sanction is fairly limited. It is a reduction in the recipients' personal rate and does not affect the rate of their partner or rates which might be paid to any dependants. It is with regard to the personal rate. Is the Senator stating that if young people on the live register aged 21, 23, 29 or 35, who receive the various levels of payment to which they might be entitled as jobseekers, fail to show up and engage that the social welfare system should have no way of directing their attention to help them get back to work? This is what this is about and it is a necessary feature of a social welfare system.

The Senator asked what constitutes good cause with regard to a person failing to engage with the activation process without good cause. In this context, good cause includes any number of circumstances which the social welfare offices receive and accept if they are true. These could be an illness on the day, unforeseen circumstances such as a family funeral or other commitments the person might reasonably have which would prevent him or her coming to the social welfare office and discussing the situation. If, in such circumstances, the person contacts the Department, he or she will be facilitated with an appointment to have a discussion with the social welfare office at another time. The concept of good cause is not new to these provisions. It already exists under the penalty provisions relating to failure to attend appropriate training courses. We are simply applying it to the other elements of the activation process. Where a person is not satisfied with a decision by a deciding officer to impose a penalty for failure to engage without good cause, the person can appeal this decision to the social welfare appeals office.

As I explained to Senators previously, the new Intreo system is a much faster and improved service for people who have become unemployed. Once people have registered with the service and have had their photo taken and signature verified, there will be group engagement whereby groups of up to 20 people will be invited together to the social welfare office. The Department of Social Protection will explain and go through the services available. The Senator might be surprised by this, but many people are grateful for the Department setting out what opportunities may exist, which could involve going back to education or training or getting involved and participation in important community activities through community employment or Tús. After group engagement, the person will be invited for a specific one to one interview with a social welfare officer and the person's situation will be discussed in some detail.

In countries where people go back to work quickly, particularly in the Scandinavian countries, this reciprocal contact and effort on the part of both the individual and the public employment services is what helps people who have lost their employment to get back to work. For the small number - it is a small number - of people who fail to engage with the system we need to be able to have sanctions available that compel their attention so that they will engage with the system.