John Kelly (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Like Senator Landy, I compliment the Government on the job creation efforts that have been put in place in recent years. I hope the trend of more than 5,000 jobs per month being created continues. I agree with Senator Landy that there are more than 3,000 jobs available in the catering sector and that employers are having great difficulty filling these positions.

I was listening to a vox pop earlier. There is definitely a myth that if a person gives up social welfare, he stands to lose too much. Under the JobsPlus initiative put in place recently by the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, an employer can claim half the social welfare payment if a person takes up work and that will enhance the wages the employer can pay to the employees. I heard another myth from someone else to the effect that if a person takes up a full-time job he will lose his medical card, but that is not true. A person will retain the medical card for four years. There is another myth to the effect that if I take up work I will lose rent allowance. Again, if a person opts to go on the rental assistance scheme he will not lose the rent allowance. There is another myth to the effect that if I take a job on the minimum wage then I stand to lose too much. The minimum wage is still greater than social welfare and if a person has children he can get a massive top-up through the family income supplement. The fifth myth I heard was to the effect that if a person gives up social welfare and takes up a job, it will be 12 weeks before he will be able to get his social welfare back again, but that is not true. It can be done in a matter of three days.

I welcome what Senator Landy has suggested. We should bring the Minister for Social Protection to the House and discuss all this. Perhaps we should consider the possibility of issuing a simple little booklet to people on long-term social welfare explaining all these things to them in order that their ill-founded fears can be addressed. That might be a way forward.