Dr. John Sweeney:

One issue Deputy John Brady raised in that area is also significant. The proportion of people at work who are below the poverty line is small but the numbers are large because the number of people at work is now more than 2 million and a small percentage of that figure constitutes many people. In-work poverty normally is addressed by in-work supports. We have seen in the island across the Irish Sea a huge rise in spending on in-work benefits, absorbing much of the savings in benefits on unemployment payments. Clearly, the ideal is that people in work have skills that make their employment so valuable to their employer that no ongoing subsidy is needed to be paid to them or to their employer and that must remain the objective. Intreo, our new public employment service, is learning more that there are different types of employers. Some employers will state they have people among their staff who left formal education at a very early stage and who have been terrifically loyal and good employees but who, if they are to remain in employment until they reach the age of 65 or 66, will need real opportunities to upskill. Such employers will co-operate with that.

However, there are employers who might talk the talk but will not walk the walk. Whereas our public employment service has built up considerable experience in identifying the work shy among the jobseekers, it is only acquiring expertise in identifying the employer who is not really serious about investing in its employees from those who are.