John Dolan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Leas-Chathaoirleach on his appointment yesterday. As the lone male member of the Civil Engagement group, I join with Senator Conway-Walsh in welcoming a female Minister to the House. At her opening words about "getting people back to work," my jaw dropped. The paragraph picked up at the end when she said "all people can participate ... to their full potential". The programme for Government refers to its goal “to deliver sustainable full employment” so that all our people have the opportunity to enjoy rewarding work and participate and contribute to their full potential to our economy and society.

The coin has two sides and it is extremely important for us to recall that. A word of caution: because it is written does not mean it will happen. There can be a slip between cup and lip. There was a huge impetus to get people back to work. We remember Dell and Waterford Crystal and others in the first few months. We all have micro-memories of job losses among people who were close to us - local small enterprises that went to the wall overnight and never made the news - but they were all real people. It is very important to keep that in mind.

When things go wrong in the economy, people on the margins - those with disabilities or mental health problems, those who carry the burden of addiction and various issues, and the long-term unemployed - are affected. Before coming in here I used to drive through Ballybough, in Dublin’s north inner city. In the great days before the collapse the queues of people collecting their unemployment benefit were out the door onto the street. There is a hard core of unemployed people, and although the figure has come down, 6% is still high. They are in Dublin and the rest of the country. The people with the problems I mention are in every community. That has to be core to our considerations.

In the 1980s there were fewer than 1 million in the workforce. Now we are edging up to 2 million and we still have a bit of work to do. When we talk of the diaspora, the parents and families of people with disabilities do not go to Dublin Airport to meet their young people. People with disabilities cannot be part of the diaspora. We sucked people from all over the world into our labour force up to ten years ago but we did not take people with disabilities. There were almost 100,000 long-term unemployed in the country.

In the early days of the last decade our manufacturing industry went down the tubes. We did not notice it because there was another crane on the skyline. Young lads ran from agriculture onto diggers and dumpers and trucks because that was where the big money was. We degraded manufacturing and agriculture, which are not the exciting sectors of our workforce. However, we were very proud of agriculture in the dark days when it and the agrifood sector kept the flag flying for us internationally. There are parts of our economy that are not connected with research and development and the high-flying new technology but which are important and provide real work for people across the country.I challenge anyone in this Chamber or elsewhere to give me examples of when he or she heard about disabled people losing their jobs when the bust came. They did not, as one cannot lose what one does not have. I do not state that in a recriminatory sense but simply observe that we missed out when we were top dog with full employment. We had money to burn but still could not do it for people who badly needed to be in the workplace.