Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests. I am going to ask my questions consecutively because I am short on time too. I will start with Dr. McDonnell and Mr. Goldrick-Kelly and I will move on to Mr. O'Brien and Ms Ahern-Flynn.

On a question to Dr. McDonnell, the rate of unemployment is close to 4%. What support would he suggest to encourage those who have a partial ability to work? While I am aware that Mr. O'Brien previously spoke around the training funds and so on and that other speakers referred to apprenticeships, what else could Dr. McDonnell suggest in that regard? I was going to ask him about action to address the current inflation spiral but to be fair, he has mentioned all of that in response to Deputy Boyd Barrett's questions.

To move to Mr. O'Brien, are his members experiencing labour shortages and if so, what action would he suggest to address this? Mr. O’Brien referred to the greening of VAT rules in his opening statement. What is his interpretation of this? I want to know because I do not fully understand it.