Mr. John McCarthy:

Our primary focus in terms of the labour market is the quarterly labour force survey. The first question a surveyor from the Central Statistics Office will ask when he or she arrives at a person's door is whether that person is in or out of employment. If participants in the schemes to which the Deputy referred classify themselves as being in employment, they will be recorded as such. In other words, there is a classification issue. The method employed by the CSO is standard international practice. This survey-based measure, which involves surveying something like 30,000 households every quarter on a rolling basis, is our primary focus.