Mr. R?n?n Hession:

I completely agree with Deputy Clarke's point on collaboration. That is essential to what we do. Our case officers are involved at the point where that is drawn together. The regional task forces and groups exist throughout the country and our teams are locked into them. The point about employers is important. We have an employer relations unit in the Department, which we have been building for some years. The vast bulk of employers are small employers. We ask them to tell us about the people they need and we assure them we will put good people in front of them. We also run interview campaigns. We use our offices for the interviews. We reach out to people who are on the live register or other payments to make them aware there is an opportunity coming up. I used to work in this area a couple of years ago. When the homeware chain, The Range, arrived in this country, we found much of its recruitment in Dublin, for example, when it opened the Coolock branch. We got those people through customers in our Department.