Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will pass that on to the gentleman concerned. Ireland has the second-highest rate of low pay in the OECD. Schemes like this are making life very difficult for people. While it is not possible to find jobs for everybody surely it would make more sense if there was merit in the jobs that are on offer. It would also put more money into the economy if these people had more to spend because people on low incomes spend all their money. These people are being asked to work for practically nothing. If one has to get to work and buy lunch, one will have nothing left, even if one is not paying PRSI.

We have heard a great deal about the work figures of late but in Wexford the unemployment figures have gone up for the last two months. Over 16,000 people in Wexford are unemployed. It must be one of the highest rates in the country. I was just looking at the figures from Enterprise Ireland and the IDA. There were only 98 IDA-related full-time jobs in Wexford in the last four years and 242 from Enterprise Ireland. How in God's name is Wexford such a blackspot for employment? The number of people unemployed, 16,000, is closer to 20% than 10% of the Wexford population.

See this speech in context