Ms Susanne Rogers:

It is a combination of all those things. As the Deputy said, we are at a time of full employment, when the rhetoric is now, “Why can you not get a job?”, and that this must be a deliberate decision people are making. I have concerns about the upcoming announcements next Tuesday as to where all that will go.

It will have to be all of those things. It also goes back to the first five years of a person's life - early childhood and the supports there. I have mentioned child poverty a couple of times. For me, it begins there. The odds of a person working and the type of jobs people have as teenagers, in their 20s and in their 30s is probably largely defined by their first five years. This needs to be the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and early childcare so that members are not sitting here in 15 or 20 years’ time discussing the same people entering into long-term employment.