Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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189. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection the cost in 2015 of the wage subsidy scheme; the financial implications to the Exchequer of reducing the minimum hours threshold from 21 hours to 18 hours per week; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36449/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The estimated outturn of expenditure on the Wage Subsidy scheme for 2015 is €16.93 million.

The rationale behind the current hours-worked threshold is to increase the potential for people with disabilities, with the capacity to do so, to obtain employment in the open labour market and become more independent and therefore less reliant on social welfare payments. Any reduction of the hours worked threshold would dilute this policy intent.

Given the demand-led nature of the scheme, the suggested change to the qualifying conditions would have an unquantifiable impact on the numbers of people claiming, and as a result, it is not possible to estimate the costs involved.