Marie Moloney (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming into the Chamber to take this matter. I apologise that my voice is suffering; it was not by any means from cheering on Kerry at the weekend. Before I speak about unregistered unemployed persons, I commend and acknowledge the work the Minister of State, the Minister and the Department have done to lower the number on the live register. I appreciate that priority had to be given to reducing the high number on the live register and that it was a mammoth task to get people back to work. As the figure has been lowered significantly, I am now asking that attention be given to unregistered unemployed persons and, in particular, bringing them into activation programmes. Who do I mean when I refer to the "unregistered unemployed"? I mean self-employed persons who, through no fault of their own or as a result of the recession, have seen their businesses go belly-up. They are no longer in self-employment and some of them cannot access jobseeker's allowance as they have property or their spouse is working. We also have women in the home whose children have reached the age of 14 years. They are no longer in receipt of homemaker's credits and would like to get back to work. We have college students who are looking for their first job such. They cannot sign on until September. even though it is acknowledged that they have finished college. In many cases, their parents do not want them to sign on because they think it would be bad for them. They want them to look for a job instead. There are, therefore, a number of people who are, in fact, unemployed but not registered. In particular, I urge that attention be given to women in the home. A number of years ago a course was set up by FÁS for women who wanted to return to work having reared their children. The course helped them re-enter the workforce. A similar course should be introduced.

I have been very vocal in this House and committees on the situation faced by self-employed persons, many of whom do not realise that even if they access jobseeker's allowance, they will not have a credited contribution because they are moving from self-employment. This will be detrimental to them later in terms of their pensions and they do not realise it. They are getting a few bob from the Department of Social Protection, but they do not realise the situation in which they find themselves. Furthermore, if they do not make a voluntary contribution within 12 months of making their last contribution, they will not be allowed to make one at all. They will then find themselves in no-man's land and in years to come will see a big reduction in their pensions.

I think the Minister of State will find it funny when I tell him what happened yesterday when my secretary googled the words "unregistered unemployed" to see if there was any category on which I was missing out. We discovered that on 13 December 1934 an oral question had been asked on the subject in the Dáil. Some 82 years ago a Deputy Doyle spoke about it. He asked the then Minister for Industry and Commerce who happened to be Seán Lemass a question about it. It is ironic that 82 years later I am asking questions about the unregistered unemployed, although I am sure they have been asked during the years too. I await the Minister of State's reply. Now that things are getting better, we really need to turn towards that cohort to bring them into the system, have them activated and brought back into employment.