Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am quite sure also that when Deputy Gerry Adams goes to his constituency and talks to people who have been long-term unemployed or those who have been short-term unemployed and are now in the world of work, they will tell him about personal dignity and the contribution they can make.

I do not accept at all that we should be static and stay with what we were left with when we were elected to office three years ago. We were losing 7,000 jobs a month. The Gateway scheme is to have 3,000 participants. They are selected because they have been long-term unemployed in their localities and want to make a contribution. They are people who ask what they can do to help. I have evidence of this happening every day in communities all over the country where people who are employed or unemployed work for the benefit of their communities. This is a situation where people who are and have been unemployed for a long time have been spoken to by Intreo. They want to make this contribution and are quite prepared to assist local authorities and communities by giving 19.5 hours a week.

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