Mr. Paul Clancy:

On the issue of economic inactivity, Dr. Farry is absolutely right. Unfortunately, it is one of those statistics in respect of which one does not wish to be on the leaderboard. It is approximately 30% here and it is 9% less in the UK on average. It is a major issue. Mr. O'Kane and I have discussed this. One of our ambitions for his presidency relates to how we can encourage people back into the workforce. We do that by providing the right training courses, giving them hope and being active and saying there are jobs and businesses out there. There are many manufacturing jobs out there, such as for welders and painters and things like that, that are really struggling to be filled. If people are encouraged to come out from being economically inactive, there are jobs available for them in those skill areas. For example, there are courses available at the North West Regional College that are paid. The students get an allowance and will have a guaranteed job at the end of the course because they are working in cooperation with local businesses. It is actually creating that sense of opportunity.

Mr. O'Kane and I are really going to try to push this year to raise awareness that there are opportunities out there and that we do not want people to leave the area or be economically inactive. There are jobs out there. People need to put their head above the parapet. There is support available and we, as a chamber, wish to work with our members to encourage them to get on board to offer opportunities to people who are economically inactive and to try to target those regions, areas or schools or whatever we wish to do with career guidance and so on to try to create that discussion. We are currently very much at the embryonic stage in that regard but it is certainly one of Mr. O'Kane's key objectives. He may wish to jump in because I know he is passionate about this.