Employment Support Schemes
104. Mr. Gormley: asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will expand upon the visionary initiatives which he recently referred to at the launch of the information booklet Working for Work, in the context of social welfare, if the State is to adequately meet the scale of emerging employment requirements.
Minister for Social and Family Affairs (Mr. Brennan): I propose to take questions 92 and 104 together.
Proposals for an innovative programme to promote participation through activation measures aimed people of working age are under discussion in the context of the preparation of the National Development Plan. Under these proposals my Department would seek to provide a single transparent system with a primary focus on the customer and a route map starting with the first point of engagement with the customer. This will involve an active outcome –focused individual case management of all social welfare customers of working age who are not progressing into employment or accessing training or employment opportunities.
In addition, other Employment Support Schemes are reviewed on a continual basis to ensure their relevance and their continued effectiveness in reaching those most distant from the labour market.
In recognition of the difficulties being experienced by some people returning to the labour force after 3 or 5 years of attachment to the live register, the qualifying period for access to both the employment and self-employment strands of Back to Work was reduced to 2 years with effect from March 2006.
Also with effect from March 2006 periods spent on Supplementary Welfare Allowance or in the Direct Provision system count towards the qualifying period for Back to Work Allowance and the Back to Education Allowance.
It was decided in budget 2006 to extend the National Employment Action Plan to persons aged 55 to 64 who were approaching six months on the live register. Such referrals are to commence no later than September.
There is no evidence that EU migrant workers are having any significant impact on the welfare system here. There were 2,000 persons from the new member states of the EU on the Live Register at the end of April 2006, which amounts to less than 1% of the PPS Numbers (212,933) issued to citizens of these countries over the period January 2004 to April 2006. The figure for supplementary welfare allowance was 902 or 0.5% of the total PPS numbers issued. My officials monitor the impact of migrant workers on social welfare schemes on an ongoing basis.
I have no plans to carry out a study of the impact of migrant workers at this time but I am aware of a study carried out by the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies on labour market experiences in Ireland and Sweden following EU enlargement. This study concluded that to date the enlargement of the EU has not resulted in any disturbances in the Irish labour market and found no evidence of displacement of native workers.