Michael Conaghan (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There have been some very intemperate remarks in response to what speakers have said and some very negative criticism, which was unfair to the people here who have worked on this. I can imagine what has been involved as I have some experience of the local employment service having been involved in establishing one in Ballyfermot 15 or 20 years ago, which is now the local employment service in itself. Of course, local employment services will have some failures and there will be people who feel they did not get out of it what they anticipated. By and large, however, I could bring people up and down my road in Ballyfermot to talk to people who are now working. The beginning of the process for them involved schemes along the lines of those we are hearing about today. We should refer to the positive things that come out of these initiatives in the great majority of cases and leave aside the criticisms for the pub or somewhere else. This forum is for constructive criticism not throwaway remarks bordering on very negative criticism.