Ms Anne Vaughan:

My own sense is that we are trying to use our own databases and to mine them as much as possible. There is quite a lot of data out there at regional and local level. That is what we need to work with. Our agencies are trying to work on the information also.

The purpose of Tús is twofold. That is why selection is random. I referred to the three functions of the Department, one of which is control. This is random because we want people who are on the live register, saying they are available for work, to take the work.

I would accept that at the edges people are possibly not best matched, but I come back to what I was saying to Deputy John Lyons, that a job - a change of routine - is good for people. That is what we are trying to push in the activation programme. We must be upfront and say this. Certainly, it is a control. People say they are available and then they are selected.