Michael Mullins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join others in welcoming Ms Costello. Her political experience and achievements go before her and they are well known among everybody involved in politics here over the past number of years. She was successful as Lord Mayor of Dublin and she was responsible for many achievements. She referred a number of times to the ¤2.5 billion in Union aid for the most deprived and she is rapporteur to the relevant committee.

Part of that fund is to address homelessness. In most of our major towns and cities there are issues of homelessness. Does Ms Costello see any opportunity for local authorities to access some of that funding to address the issue? It is depressing and distressing when walking the streets of the capital city any morning to see the number of people who are sleeping in doorways. That happens also in Galway city.

My second question relates to the European youth guarantee which will provide jobs or further education and training or apprenticeships. Ms Costello, MEP, is probably aware that the Health Service Executive and the Department of Health had a scheme that would have provided employment opportunities to 1,000 nurses, yet the unions encouraged those young people not to take up those positions because they considered the starting salaries were not of a sufficiently high level. Could the European youth guarantee scheme, and what we are hoping to do, run into difficulties if we do not get buy-in from the various unions? I would like to hear her opinion of the advice given which I think was misguided as we all have to lower expectations. The chance to get one's foot onto the employment ladder was a missed opportunity for some. They got bad advice.