Mr. Donal Coffey:

Senator Nash spoke about the difficult to reach section of the population. This has been a learning process for me. When the local employment service, LES, started, it was a gateway for people in the community to reach information on jobs because in Cork they would have had to travel into the city centre, which would have made it quite difficult. That was the idea behind the LES that it would reach out into the community. Roll on 20 plus years and the gateway is different. It is the gateway into communities, including the difficult to reach section of the population. A lot of services available through the LDC partnerships could actually be channelled through our offices, especially because we are linked with the unemployment service. The live register is a universal church and we meet a lot of people. The LES is very useful and I believe the Government underestimates its potential.

I knocked the cold house, but I thank front-line staff in the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection and the former FÁS who have always worked very closely with us. As a front-line worker, I acknowledge them in this forum.