Mary White (Fianna Fail)

As some colleagues said, today is international labour day. The biggest challenge facing this country is the 435 people who are unemployed and who are not able to participate in the labour market. I see it as 435 individual challenges with which this Government must deal. It must provide jobs for the people. We need a proper and open debate with Ministers from different Departments and not only one Department. We need Ministers from different Departments to come to the House to discuss the issue of unemployment.

The construction industry is very important, although it has a very bad name. Currently, it is running at approximately 2% to 3% of our economy when in a balanced economy, it should run at 8% to 9%. We are not only talking about building houses. Many construction jobs should be done to maintain our infrastructure.

Another area which has been neglected is indigenous manufacturing. We have forgotten that in manufacturing-----