Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton has said that no community employment schemes will close pending the outcome of a review that she has ordered.
Cuts to the funding for schemes announced in the budget sparked protests both inside and outside the Dáil today.
Ms Burton was speaking during a debate on the Social Welfare Bill, which passed all stages in the Dáil today by 88 votes to 47.
Patrick Nulty, who lost the Labour whip this week, voted against the Bill.
Minister Burton said for the first time in three years, basic rates of welfare for recipients had not been cut.
She reminded the Opposition that the country was in a programme of adjustment and that income and expenditure had to be balanced.
She confirmed that her department will be in a position to fund viable community employment schemes that are affected by funding changes announced in the Budget.
Earlier, Eamon Gilmore told the Opposition to introduce more accuracy into their commentary in the debates on the Bill.
Mr Gilmore was speaking during the Order of Business in the Dáil.
He took issue with the claim by Sinn Féin that the Government was making cuts of €800m to social welfare and that it was closing down Community Employment Schemes.
Mr Gilmore said the claims were untrue.
Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald said the Government was "butchering" the Bill with indecent haste.
Fianna Fáil's Éamon Ó Cuív said cuts being proposed in relation to the most vulnerable will not save the Government much money, but will create hardship.
Socialist TD Joe Higgins said more time was needed to explain the transformation of Labour Minister Joan Burton who last year engaged in ''screams of anguish'' about the impact of cuts by the Fianna Fáil-led Government on the women of Ireland.
People Before Profit's Richard Boyd Barrett said the Social Welfare Bill would drive lone parents into poverty and provided a disincentive for them to work.
He said the Bill should be called the Social Destruction Bill, not the Social Welfare Bill.
Mr Nulty said the Bill contravened some of the core objectives that must be achieved to get people back to work and to achieve equality and social justice.
