Mary White (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)

Employment stimulus packages such as that being provided by means of the retrofit scheme to insulate 100,000 houses a year - which will be extremely good in the context of tackling fuel poverty and allowing people to live in comfort and which is particularly targeted at low income households - the investment in research programmes, the temporary employment subsidy scheme, the enterprise stabilisation fund and the new employers' job incentive scheme should all be seen as supports for the unemployed. We want to assist people in obtaining employment and the best way to do so is to provide protection against poverty and ensure that people are upskilled.

I wish to conclude by quoting George Bernard Shaw, who had great links to Carlow. A George Bernard Shaw summer school will be held in Carlow next year-----

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