I thank the Minister of State. I appreciate the response and I understand the challenges. I understand the funding challenges and that this scheme started in 2020, but it is disappointing that only 77 of the 930 projects have been done. While I fully understand that Covid happened, when a scheme is put in place people want it to be delivered as quickly as possible. This has not only happened in Tipperary. The issue has been raised with me by Councillor Gareth Scahill in Roscommon, who has seen it in schools in Cast…

I welcome the changes the Minister, Deputy Heather Humphreys, is making in respect of jobseeker’s benefit for people who are working to be on a sliding scale in terms of when they lose their job. They will not just go straight onto €220 a week. The job they have is taken into account. The changes that happen for someone who suddenly loses their job and the expenses they have is taken into account for a period of six months. That is extremely welcome. However, I ask that we include people who are undergoing cancer t…

I wish to raise an issue I have raised numerous times before in this Chamber, which is the N24 road. I noticed that the Taoiseach has spoken about a Ministry for infrastructure. This is the key infrastructure for the south-east region. It has been in the plan for a number of years but it has not received funding this year to get it to planning stage. My colleague, Councillor Pat Dunphy in Kilkenny, was speaking at the Piltown municipal district meeting about how critical this is for the area and region. As a Govern…

If there are no more contributions, I call the Minister.

Does Senator Higgins wish to reply?

I welcome to our Public Gallery Yuan Shuhong, vice chair of the Constitution and Law Committee of the 14th National People's Congress and his committee members, part of the delegation meeting the justice committee. You are very welcome and I hope it is a productive and a good visit.

Unless the Minister wishes to respond, is the Senator pressing the amendment?

Is the Senator pressing the amendment?

Unless the Minister wants to make a comment.

Amendments Nos. 92 to 114, inclusive, are related. Amendments Nos. 106 to 114, inclusive, are physical alternatives to amendment No. 105. Amendments Nos. 109 to 114, inclusive, are physical alternatives to amendment No. 108. Amendments Nos. 92 to 114, inclusive, may be discussed together by agreement. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Inheritance tax has been well flagged in the past number of weeks as something that might be considered in the budget. I really hope it will be because the threshold at the moment is quite low regarding what people have to pay capital gains tax on if family members leave them more than €335,000. Even if we make changes to the threshold and increase it to something like €400,000, we still have a problem with the inheritance tax that people have to pay. The problem with it is that normally in these situations people …

Now.

Now.

Tomorrow at 9.30 a.m.

For clarity, we are talking about someone doing work experience for the rate of €450 where someone else in that same company is working the same amount of time but getting the higher rate of pay. If they are doing work experience, they are not doing the same work as a full-time employee. If they are qualified to do that work, they would take on full employment. It is similar to where there are lower rates of pay for 16-years-olds, 17-year-olds and 18-year-olds. Because it is training and work experience, you cannot…

What the Senator is saying just does not make sense. No person who works in the Department of Social Protection will send someone on work experience if they are fully qualified for that role. A chef, for example, might lose his or her job for whatever reason and go into the social welfare office to look for guidance and to engage with social protection on how he or she should go forward and on what he or she should do. No-one in the social protection office will say that a fully qualified chef should be sent on wor…

That absolutely makes no sense. Essentially, what the Senator is saying is that for anyone who is out of work, the Department of Social Protection will look at people who are fully qualified chefs to go into-----

-----to go on work experience to be chefs. That is just not going to happen. The Senator's statement then means that the Department is denying people the opportunity to transfer into a new career because there are people who are fully qualified who are-----

-----unemployed at the moment but are looking to move into another area.

Every case is looked at individually and is not compared to how everybody else is or are qualified, no matter how many people are out of work. It is looked at very individually. The argument cannot be made that someone who is fully qualified, for example to be a chef, and someone who then comes in on work experience and worked in some other area or other profession, should be paid the same. It does not make sense.