Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We need that. The Deputy is absolutely right.

I will not go into the Army Reserve issue because that is a matter for the Minister for Defence but I take the Deputy's point on community activity and keeping people activated. Unemployment generally is the number one priority and youth unemployment is a sub-set of that and it is a major issue for us to deal with.

I refer to the external delivery of services, or outsourcing, which is a more common view. I answered questions from Deputy Higgins on this in the Dáil yesterday. We are looking at providing core services more efficiently but not trying to replicate ancillary non-core services which can be provided more efficiently in the private sphere. In the Dáil yesterday I gave an example I happen to know about from a Wexford perspective, and Deputy Twomey would know this well. In the old days, Wexford General Hospital and other hospitals used to have their own laundries but it was very inefficient. Now Celtic Linen or some other company is able to provide on-time scrubs and bed linen to hospitals so one is not trying to replicate laundries in every hospital or agency which needs linen.