Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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16. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the reason persons under 25 years of age are excluded from taking part in the part-time job incentive scheme, and her plans for expanding this scheme to younger persons as part of the Youth Guarantee. [24785/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The part-time job incentive scheme is a scheme, which allows people who are long-term unemployed to take up part-time employment for less than 24 hours per week and receive a special weekly income supplement. The scheme was introduced on a pilot basis in 1986 and extended nationwide in 1988. The scheme was seen as a form of enticement to those who lacked an incentive to take up employment. Participants in this scheme are expected to continue to make efforts to find full-time work. There are currently 381 participants on the scheme with a budget of just under €2 million for 2015. To qualify for the part-time job incentive scheme a person must be in receipt of jobseeker's allowance for at least 390 days. In addition, to qualify a person must have been in receipt of a higher jobseeker's payment than the appropriate part-time job incentive supplement payable, which is €119 per week for a single person and €193.90 per week where an individual was getting an increase for a qualified adult. The scheme is not designed for young jobseekers but for the long-term unemployed. Policy for under twenty five year olds is addressed by the Youth Guarantee which sets a medium-term objective of ensuring that young people 18-25 receive an offer of employment, continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeshipwithin four months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education.