Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 446: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will provide that the back to work enterprise allowance be made available to persons who have been unemployed for one year; the likely cost of such a change; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22169/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The back to work allowance scheme is part of my Department's programme of initiatives designed to assist long-term unemployed people, lone parents and other social welfare recipients to return to the active labour force. There are two strands to the scheme, namely, the back to work enterprise allowance for self-employment and the back to work allowance for employees.

The scheme was reviewed in 2002 in light of economic and labour market changes and, in particular, the drop in unemployment levels since the introduction of the scheme in 1993. In January 2003, the qualifying period on unemployment benefit-assistance was increased to five years. Recipients of other social welfare qualifying payments were not affected by the change. The scheme is continually monitored to ensure its relevance to current labour market and economic conditions. It was recognised that there was some difficulty being experienced by persons wishing to enter self-employment after five years attachment to the live register. In budget 2004, the qualifying period was reduced to three years.

I will continue to monitor the scheme to ensure it continues to assist those furthest from the labour market to gain a foothold into sustainable employment or self-employment and will keep the scheme under review. However, I have no plans to change the qualifying criteria at this time. It is estimated that if the qualifying criteria for access to the enterprise strand of the scheme was reduced from three years to one year, the net costs would be approximately €10.4 million in the first year.