Ms Geraldine Hurley:

I think a concern sometimes is to make sure that any of the employment support programmes are not substituting for jobs that may be available in the open labour market as well. We are showing that there is progression across the board. In addition, from our general Intreo employment support services as well.

On how many people are on farm assist, the latest figures I have from May are 4,770, if I am correct. Yes, that is correct. That is the number on farm assist. It is true that number has been reducing over the past number of years as well.

In terms of looking at the big picture, I suppose we are always looking at, across all our employment programmes or activation services, the work that Intreo does on the provision of employment, training, advice and guidance to unemployed people. Pathways to Work is the Government’s latest employment services strategy, which was launched last July. We would also have the advice at our disposal of the Labour Market Advisory Council, which is looking at that big overall picture and advising the Ministers as well on the measures and mixture of measures that are available in the context of the current labour market environment. There is a mix of representatives and experts on the Labour Market Advisory Council and they gave advice to the Minister during Covid, protections of the post-Covid response to the labour market and now, in the new context, I am sure they will be providing further advice on measures that are currently in place in this space, but also across the board as well.