Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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Question 337: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the fact that persons who do not qualify for any social welfare payment but are interested in returning to the workforce, are not entitled to avail of opportunities for re-training or internship programmes such as JobBridge; her plans to address this issue; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27031/11]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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Question 339: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the fact that persons who do not qualify for jobseeker's allowance as the household income is over the required limit but are out of work, are therefore not entitled to avail of opportunities for re-training or internship programmes such as JobBridge; her plans to address this issue; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27033/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 337 and 339 together.

Given the scale of the unemployment crisis one of the key objectives of labour market policy is to keep those on the live register close to the labour market and to prevent a drift into long-term unemployment. The JobBridge scheme is an activation measure which facilitates this objective through allowing the participant to engage in a 6 or 9 month internship while maintaining their social welfare entitlements plus a €50 top up.

The eligibility for the scheme is confined to those on the live register and in receipt of unemployment payments or signing for credits for 3 of the previous 6 months. In so construing the scheme, the policy objective is to prioritise scarce resources on those on the live register so as to increase their chances of leaving it and ensure a reduction in exchequer costs over time.

There are many other training, education and employment programmes that do not require participants to be on the live register such as the Work Placement Programme and the Community Employment Scheme.