Social Welfare Rates
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-26
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Dara Calleary (FF), Mayo

I assure the Deputy I do not want to give off any suggestion of the person she mentioned. We want young people to remain connected to the labour market, to avail of the employment and training opportunities and, more importantly, to avail of opportunities that are suited to their skills and interests as opposed to going through generic schemes. We went through the options earlier, including Springboard and the new changes to the Tús scheme. We want to ensure young jobseekers can receive a higher payment if they participate in training and employment programmes. I know that 99% of them want to do so but there can be challenges in terms of transport and accessing appropriate courses. We are trying to address those challenges as well. As outlined, a young jobseeker participating in education or training can receive up to the maximum personal rate. For participants in the workplace experience scheme, the weekly rate increases to up to €369. We certainly will be focusing on Pathways to Work, which I will have a chance to talk about in my reply to a later question.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:42+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-26