Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 340: To ask the Minister for Social Protection his plans to create schemes which would give some form of employment to those on the live register and in particular to facilitate those who are not entitled to jobseeker's allowance due to the fact that their contributions have been used up. [26256/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The announcement by the Taoiseach of changes in Ministerial responsibility were made with a view towards achieving a better alignment of functions within and between Departments in order to deliver a better outcome for users of services and for the taxpayer. With regard to the functions being transferred to my Department, there will be an emphasis on reducing poverty, particularly by reducing dependency on social welfare payments among people of working age by promoting greater activation and participation. Bringing the various relevant programmes together within the remit of my Department will assist us in achieving these objectives.

The transfer of functions and the associated development of services will take time to achieve. However, I am pushing ahead with a range of policy initiatives aimed at delivering opportunities for activation to those who are out of work. Recently, the Taoiseach and I launched the employer (job) PRSI incentive scheme. The scheme, which is part of our ongoing work to support job creation and to deal with the difficulties that unemployment creates for people in their daily lives, will support job creation, and counter the drift of people into long-term unemployment and welfare dependency by exempting employers from liability to pay their share of PRSI contributions for twelve months, when they employ a person who has been out of work for more than six months. I would expect that this scheme will be of benefit to substantial numbers of persons who no longer have an entitlement to jobseeker's benefit.