FINE GAEL TD Michelle Mulherin has defended her proposals for a national service programme for Ireland’s young people – insisting that her plan is not a gateway to military conscription.

Mulherin’s plans, aired at a Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting during the week and first discussed in yesterday’s Sunday Independent, had reportedly included cuts to unemployment payments for young people who did not fulfil the service.

This morning, on the Today with Pat Kenny programme, Mulherin insisted that the plan was not a right-wing attempt to keep lesser-well off people busy – and asserted that her plans were positively motivated.

“There are a lot of young people with whom I have spoken – and also their parents – who are really distraught that they have nothing to do with their time,” the Mayo TD explained.

The scheme she was advocating would therefore “offer possibilities in relation to people who are unemployed” – though it would also be available to people who are not unemployed.

“Young people, between second level and a certain age, would do work in the service of their country.

“The sort of thing that people might get involved in might be in the auspices of the Reserve Defence Force… maybe the Air Corps, the Navy, or community or voluntary work for men and women.”

The plans would be a way of formalising the notion of active citizenship, Mulherin further claimed. “It’s like a gap year, and it’ll give young people a bit of space” to decide their actual career hopes.

The scheme, as currently imagined, would be available between second and third-level education, but would also “potentially allow people to finish college first” – meaning those who found work directly after college could be able to bypass the system.

The plan has been criticised by some commentators as being tantamount to a work-for-welfare system, while others believed it unfair that people unable to get into college or to find work would be targeted by the scheme while those who found work would not have to observe it.

Here’s a quick snapshot of the Twitter reaction: