asked the Minister for Labour if he has any proposals to eliminate the discrimination under the employment premium scheme against persons in receipt of unemployment assistance.

The premium employment programme does not discriminate against persons in receipt of unemployment assistance provided they have received unemployment benefit on at least one occasion since 20th June, 1974, and were signing on the live register for the four weeks prior to employment under the programme.

So that there is discrimination in regard to this programme in the field of unemployment assistance?

The Deputy may not have heard my reply, which was that the programme does not discriminate provided the persons concerned have received unemployment benefit on at least one occasion since 20th June, 1974.

That is a different situation.

This is leading to argument. Question No. 7.

I can only give the Deputy the factual reply.

Is it not the position that school leavers who have never held jobs and who are registered for unemployment assistance do not qualify under this programme?

There are two separate things. The problem of persons seeking employment for the first time is a separate one and is being tackled independently of the programme. A series of measures designed to deal with youth employment and training have been introduced. These include the expansion of the activities of AnCO to enable 9,000 people to be trained in 1976, the introduction and expansion of the community youth training programme, and the introduction of the carrer training programme. These are separate and distinct issues.

Would the Minister agree that a youth of 20 years of age who is registered with the National Manpower Service does not qualify and so he is discriminated against when he goes to look for a job? It may not be suitable for him to go to AnCO for various reasons. He is discriminated against because he never stamped a card. If he had collected unemployment benefit for one week he would qualify.

Brief questions please, Deputy.

Because of his age and because he has never had a job he does not qualify.

Essentially the Deputy seems to object to the proviso or the condition that an eligible employee should have received unemployment benefit at least once since 20th June, 1974. This proviso was designed to ensure that the programme would only apply to those workers who lost their jobs as a result of recession and not to the long term unemployed and school leavers who, as I explained in reply to an earlier question, are being treated as a separate problem on a separate basis.