Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Has a metric ever been done against the overall effect of all the programmes in tackling unemployment, which should be at a record low anyway? That is true right across society. As I said, this includes antisocial behaviour and convictions. If a person goes into prison once, that is a major problem for the rest of his or her life in terms of reputation and getting jobs. Any of us who deal with people will know the number who get into apprenticeships, trades and various third-level institutions and so on. I would not measure third level as being the be-all and end-all of everything.

I remember that, at one time, a community scheme measured it on three levels, that is, third level, an apprenticeship or a particular skill, and then there were those who wound up unskilled, doing general labour or unemployed. Is the State measuring the effect of these programmes against those wider metrics? Worthy and all as they are, it is totally insufficient in these concentrated areas that we, and I mean the whole Oireachtas and Government, are not actually making the gains on concentrated urban deprivation that we should.