Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I want to make a point that has probably been made a number of times already. The welfare trap and the reliance on welfare is now juxtaposed with the cost of employment. The entry-level costs of employment for an employer taking on somebody, regardless of what role the person is in, means that person has to return value to the employer. That is going to be difficult with people who have a very low skill set. Ms O'Brien touched on a very important point, which is confidence. The confidence of people who have been out of the workforce for any length of time is probably shot, to be frank, and there is the whole peer pressure of trying and failing.

One of the groups that I know well is the men's shed, which does tremendous work for people who are retired. The great boon of all of that is being in there among your peers, feeling that you are giving something back and that you are of use. That is all very good from a mental health point of view. Is it something we should look at in terms of trying to activate the longer-term unemployed and having some outreach in communities where the long-term unemployed could come together? We know the Barack Obama message, “Yes, we can.” It is about giving back to people the idea that it does not matter if they have been disengaged for a certain amount of time, if they are not quite literate or if their skill set is not up to par. There is somewhere for them to go, a place where people can get together as a group to try to motivate themselves.

A big problem for people who are long-term unemployed is that the motivation is no longer there. They are stuck in a poverty trap or social welfare trap. The motivation is not there and it just seems like something they cannot take on. We need to do a lot of work to try to instil confidence and give people mentorship and leadership to encourage them to realise that everybody has unique talents and abilities. It is about finding a way of trying to direct those. Ms O’Brien might have some ideas on how we might achieve that.