Marie Moloney (Labour) | Oireachtas source

While I welcome the top-up on the community employment schemes, the strict rules governing time allowances for social employment schemes, with three or six years as a maximum, cause difficulty for older workers. I would ask that they be retained up to pension age. There are people over 60 years of age with little or no prospect of obtaining commercial employment for whom training would serve no benefit and yet who have craft or lifetime skills that would be of benefit to society. The restrictive times should be removed for those people. It would not involve great cost - €20 a week - to the State. These people want to stay working. Senator Brennan mentioned the issue as well. They do not want stay at home and draw social welfare. They could be four or five years on social welfare before reaching the pension age. They have a lot to offer. I ask that we look at those rules.