Mr. Gerard Brady:

We have seen reports of a disappearing workforce, particularly older workers in countries across Europe, in the US and the UK. We have not seen it happen as much in the Irish workforce. We have seen an extra 250,000 people in employment over the period of the recession because of Covid. We have also seen significant increases in participation rates, especially among younger workers.

In a sense, Ireland has almost bucked the trend versus other countries across Europe and particularly the US, where they have seen this. We see increased barriers to participation in the workforce, especially to people further towards retirement. Caring responsibilities are the number one issue that comes up with us with our members. Increasingly, the cost and time involved in caring responsibilities for workers both of children and older people is the biggest barrier we see to people joining the workforce. That is where we see the major challenges.