Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes. The witnesses should feed into this committee by all means. On foot of this meeting, they may want to come back to us with particular requests. That could be a request that we speak to the Department of Social Protection about counting hours rather than days worked. That is a sensible proposal. We had a good answer on the age limit of 70 years. On recruitment, the number of applicants has gone from fewer than 100 to over 1,500. One cannot look at a Dublin Bus without being reminded that the company is hiring, and that approach has worked. It would be great to work out how to get my name and "Vote No. 1" slogan printed on the front of buses on particular routes if I were ever running for the Dáil. We will work on that some other day.

I thank the witnesses for attending and assisting the committee with this important matter. We strayed from the official topic but that always happens. All the contributions were useful. It was great to have the witnesses here. I look forward to seeing them again soon.