John Gilroy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

That is a decision for the people to make but that is my opinion.

Some measures announced in the budget are difficult but necessary and I will deal with one or two of them in the short time available. I believe that nobody would argue that young people are not better off being in education, training or employment. There has been an extension, unfortunately, of the €100 reduced jobseeker's allowance to new entrants below the age of 24. Over a full year that will would probably affect up to 40,000 people.

We have to look at this in the context of the €46 million that is being put into the youth guarantee and the extension of the back to education funding. This is a good thing in that context. No parent would want to see his or her children signing on the dole. Members of Sinn Féin are probably the only people who might want to see that because they might get some electoral advantage from it. I say that on the basis of what we constantly hear from Sinn Féin. We are more ambitious for our young people. The provision of youth guarantee schemes that will encourage them to go back to education or back to work is the way to go forward here.

Most of the scaremongering with regard to health has been led by Fianna Fáil, which is very good at it. Fianna Fáil's power base is based mainly on the idea that it can deliver goodies to constituents regardless of whether they are entitled to them. It is no wonder that Fianna Fáil is screeching the loudest about our decision to make a structural change in the qualification and eligibility criteria for medical cards.