Mary White (Fianna Fail)
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I would like to reiterate my colleagues' appreciation of the presentations, all of which were very pertinent to today's meeting. We have an unemployment rate of 14.8%, almost 60% of which is made up of people who are long-term unemployed, but there is no sense of urgency. It is not on the radar how devastating not having a job is to a human being. I saw that devastation during the 1980s when myself and Connie Doody set up Lir Chocolates. In certain areas of this city the unemployment rate was 40%. I saw the lack of confidence and the emotional fear in the people we were taking on. They were afraid they would not be able to do the job. To see the transformation in those people when they actually got a job and managed to hold it down was marvellous and motivated me to keep going. I was not interested in profit. In fact, I had never heard the word before and was never interested in it. However, there comes a day when one has to face reality and accept that a business is only sustainable if it makes a profit. I got my energy to keep going from seeing the transformation in people when they got a job.

At the moment I am helping young graduates who cannot get jobs and I am seeing the same devastation again. In the 1980s graduates would have automatically got a job or would have emigrated. Now we have an incredibly highly educated young population. The standard and diversity of their qualifications are quite incredible. I have spoken to young people who went through third-level education and were expecting to find employment on graduating but two years after qualifying, they are still jobless. Their confidence is gone. They hang their heads. They are trying to put on a show-----