Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I have a couple of questions that may build from Deputy Denis Naughten's first contribution. He spoke about the impact of Covid-19 on the people coming to these services. We have come out of Covid-19 now and find ourselves in a very different economy, particularly with regard to the workforce. We know there is difficulty in a range of areas, with hospitality being the one jumping out of course, in getting staff. One of the contributors I could not identify because I was listening with headphones said the movement of the economy and the labour force very much dictates how far removed people are from the traditional labour market when the organisations before us first meet them.

My question is around that issue. Do the witnesses find that people who might have been candidates or clients three or five years ago are now entering into the workforce without going through the organisations? Does that mean the people the witnesses are now seeing would have been further removed from the workforce?

I have a couple of questions relating to capacity. They kind of touch on what Mr. Kearney spoke about. Do we have capacity within the community employment sector now? Do we have it in the right places, geographically? Are there places where we struggle to fill spaces and are there places where we need more capacity? That goes to the question of whether we see people staying on for longer. Ms Rohan referred to the two thirds of people over 55 and the one third who are over 60. Is keeping such people on through the scheme restricting capacity for activation and training candidates that we might expect to see?