Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

That is an independent process, although it falls within the remit of the Department of Social Protection. I expect that as we improve IT platforms, that system will improve. Those in the appeals system have been working to clear the backlogs, some of which arose due to the fact that when the economy hit the wall there was an enormous upsurge in applications, under every heading, for social welfare. Many of the IT platforms needed to be renewed and I made a decision that we would go for an update and renewal. This has taken some time, but I am happy to report that with regard to the first three schemes - FIS, domiciliary care allowance and carer's allowance - the new systems are now installed.

In regard to dealing with employers, I agree with everybody that we should communicate more with employers on this. It is a budgetary issue, but it is important. Today, the Taoiseach and I met the labour market advisory council that I have established in the Department. The council is chaired by Martin Murphy, CEO of Hewlett Packard, and on it are a significant number of people from the private sector, such as Heather Reynolds, who is one of the chief executives of Eishtec in Waterford. Also on the council is the labour market economist John Martin, the recently retired deputy director of the OECD. The council will work in depth with knowledgeable people on how to get more people back to work.

Comments have been made on the OECD. Much of the commentary in this regard is about what did not happen in Ireland during the boom. The OECD has said that if we had adopted an activation approach during our economic boom, we would have entered the downturn with 100,000 fewer people unemployed. We did not and as a result we must start from our current position. With due respect to Senator White, the fact is that employment fell off a cliff in Ireland after the bank and construction collapse, resulting in a loss of 250,000 jobs.