Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael)
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I will be quite brief because a number of the questions I was going to ask have been asked already and there is no point in repeating them.

Ms Rogers said long-term unemployment is only at 1%, which is a record low. That is fantastic. Now is the perfect opportunity to delve into that and find solutions and things we could do. Disability was touched on as well. We have the lowest employment rate for people with disabilities in the EU. I think it is below 30% when most European countries are at 50%. Many employers take on people with disabilities for ten or 12 weeks for a training programme but do not retain them, especially people who are visually impaired. I think the rate for them is at 10%. It is extremely low. What do we need to do there to improve that for them?

There have been many changes in the workforce in the past four or five years. We are talking about groups the normal 9-5 does not suit, especially single parents. In the past five years we have had working from home and flexibility with work, which has all been extremely positive. Are the witnesses concerned in the last few weeks or months to read stories about companies now looking to go back to five days a week, pushing people to come back and enticing them by having dinners and lunches on certain days of the week to try to get them back in? It is all essentially to try to get people back in for five days a week. Do the witnesses see a long-term problem with that for minority groups or certain people it does not suit?