Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The JobBridge scheme will be reviewed. The tender documents for that review have been issued and we should get those documents back early next year. When I became Minister of State I introduced a reform under the Tús scheme with a move from the random selection process in place to allowing some 20% self-referral, which has worked extremely well. I thank the Senator for his comments about the other areas. As I said, Tús was designed to help people keep in touch with the workforce.

I would strongly disagree with Senator Quinn's view on the minimum wage. I believe what we have done has been very positive in restoring the rate by giving people back €1 and also in regard to the Low Pay Commission's recommendation. The Minister of State set up that commission which will review the minimum wage. There are representatives from the employers' bodies in that respect. There is an independent and evidence-based resource in place with respect to the minimum wage and that is a positive development.

The Senator made a number of remarks about people who do not want to return to work. Social welfare is a social contract and there are two sides to the contract, one side is the State, in terms of taxpayers, which supplies support to a person who has become unemployed. The other side of the contract is that the person would be actively seeking work. A number of amendments and changes have been made in that regard in terms of sanctions. I can forward the Senator the detail of that rather than going through it.

A number of amendments and changes have been made since April 2011 to ensure that people live up to their side of the social contract. People are paying taxes to ensure there is a level of decency below which the unemployed should not fall and that there would be an opportunity for them to get back into the workforce, and those people's side of the contract is that they would be actively seeking work. In my experience the vast majority of people want to work. They want not only the dignity of work but the social interaction and social networking that work provides, which is very important to the individual and to his or her family.

From my experience as Minister of State at the Department of Social Protection with a key role in labour activation, the vast majority of people who are unemployed want to get back into work. However, that presents specific challenges. We have statistics on intergenerational unemployment. When we moved out of earlier recessions, a payment in terms of unemployment benefit was made to people, in many ways, to set them aside and keep them quiet. There was not an active involvement and engagement process to assist them back into work. As we come out of this recession we must make sure that everybody has an equal opportunity to get back into work. It is important we should have a role model in every family, where a member of every family is working and in that way people will aspire to work and improve their circumstances.

In my role in labour activation I am very concerned about intergenerational unemployment. That must be tackled this time. Proposals to tackle it cannot be a shelf in the way that was done in the 80s, 90s and noughties. We must make sure that people have an opportunity to get back into work, whether it be through education or further training. We are doing much of that work now through the new Intreo offices where case officers give individuals a workplan and work with them to assist them to get back to work. I very much take on board what the Senator said in that regard but there are sanctions in place and they are implemented. In addition, JobPath is being rolled out throughout the country.

I am disappointed that Senator Cullinane is not present but I thank him for his good wishes and for recognising the improvements in the budget. He used figures similar to those cited by Fianna Fáil Deputies with regard to the number of millionaires. I am not a great reader of the "Sindo" if that is from where the statistics came. I like to have a quite pleasant Sunday so I am inclined to skip over that particular newspaper. I wonder if the Senator was referring to people's assets in his determining people to be millionaires. Are the millionaires to whom he referred, for example, the farmer whose farm is worth a €1 million, or a small businessman the valuation of whose business runs into millions of euro? As far as I can recall, Sinn Féin's policy is not to take account of the assets of farmers but I know it is a populist party.When one asks Sinn Féin to specify which individuals earning over €100,000 it would tax, one finds that it would exclude so many people that no revenue would be raised. I am inclined to agree with a remark made by Senator Darragh O'Brien during Senator Cullinane's contribution but I will not go there.

In response to Senator Moloney, I attended those parliamentary party meetings where she raised the issue of the carer's allowance and I recognise her work. In respect of those aged 25 with a family, there is no reduction in rates for jobseekers aged under 25 who have a qualified child dependant. I will be happy to look at the specific item she raised and refer it to the policy section of the Department to see whether there is a need to change that.

There have been many increases and I do not intend to go through them again. I appreciate the contributions from Senators. I believe we are on a better path. For the first time, there is hope at the end of that tunnel. The light is shining and it is not a train coming to knock us over and back. It has been a long and difficult road for our citizens. There have been terrible cuts and people have seen a reduction in expenditure. The people who have been worst affected during the recession are those who lost their jobs, those who did not have an opportunity to go into work after coming out of college and those who were forced to emigrate because there was no work. All Members of this House must acknowledge that there has been a change in respect of opportunities to go back into employment. I hope that when members of our diaspora come back to Ireland over the Christmas period, they will see what opportunities are out there because there are shortages in certain skillsets. Members of the diaspora could use coming back to Ireland as an opportunity to sound out the market. We cannot take the foot off the accelerator in respect of getting people back to work. Our ambition and the ambition of the next Government must be full employment. It must be to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to go back into work. I thank the Senators for their contributions and commend the Bill to the House.