It does not give me great pleasure to raise this issue on the Adjournment this evening. I am disappointed with the way the Minister and the Government have handled this scheme, which is one of the better schemes introduced by the Government in recent years. There are 6,474 people involved in the back to education allowance scheme. These people are on social welfare, but they retain their social welfare benefits during the summer months when they go back into the education system. However, the Minister has changed that this year. She is now saying that people must sign on at labour exchanges during the summer months. That is a serious change to the scheme.
It is wrong for the Government to enter into an agreement with students and then to change the ground rules. That is what has happened in this case. Approximately 6,000 people thought last year that the scheme would continue until they finished their education. However, that will not happen. I am surprised at the Government and the Minister because these people want to educate themselves so that they will not have to depend on social welfare in the future. They want to contribute to the Exchequer.
The Government is being short-sighted. However, that is nothing new. It has already abolished the summer jobs scheme and many community employment schemes. The latest one to be affected is the back to work scheme. In the past if a person was employed for more than 15 months, he or she qualified for the back to work scheme. However, a person must now be unemployed for more than five years to qualify for it. This is an attack on the poor, the weak and the marginalised. I am surprised at the Minister and the Government for their short-sighted view of education, particularly of the back to education allowance scheme.
I have received representations from people throughout the country, including Dublin, who are upset and annoyed at this change by the Government and the Minister. These people fell out of the education system for one reason or another. They are on social welfare, but they are now back in the education system. Some of them are married and some have children. Many of them were encouraged to get back into the education system because they could retain their social welfare benefits. This scheme has worked. If the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Coughlan, was here, I would tell her she should not have allowed the Department and the Government to make such a decision because it affects the most marginalised in society. If the Minister of State, Deputy Treacy, gets an oppor tunity, he should ask the Government to look at this scheme again. It is wrong to change a scheme which has worked.
Thousands of people used the scheme because it was the chance for which they were waiting to get back into the education system, while retaining their social welfare benefits. Many of these people will now go to the social welfare offices where they will be told by social welfare officers that they can work for the summer months. Some of them will get into difficulty and they will then have to go to the community welfare officers in the health boards. Many of these people will become disillusioned with the system and they will not go back to education. The Government is being short-sighted. If these people go to third level colleges and get a degree or diploma, they will be in the workplace in the next few years and they will be able to contribute to the State.
The Government has made a mistake. I call on the Government to change its mind. What it has done is wrong. If the Government entered into a three year agreement tomorrow morning with a contractor, it would not try to change it in the middle of the three year term. That is what is happening in this case. People who went back into the education system last September believed the scheme would be available for the three years they would be in full-time education. However, the ground rules have been changed. The Minister should allow those already in the scheme to continue to get their benefits and she could tell the new people the rules have changed. The Government is wrong and it will regret it in the future.