Mr. Danny McCoy:

Labour market activation is going to be crucial, particularly in light of the statistics regarding unemployment among young people, the rate of which stands at more than 50%. Apprenticeships and internships will form part of addressing that issue because this is a critical time for young people to get that kind of experience during their development. We know from previous crises that unemployment is a scarring on their lifetime incomes. We saw that from the great financial recession.

Some of these schemes will attract great popularity, similar to JobBridge. When analysis was carried out, however, despite public opinion, that scheme was found to be beneficial to the individuals involved and the testimonies of those individuals should be looked at again by legislators. Rather than turning our faces to some of the things perceived to have gone badly during the financial crisis, that scheme was one of the better ones, in my view, for the individuals involved.