Thank you very much, Mr. Martin.
We're also obviously disappointed that you and your colleagues weren't able to make it, but we can understand how difficulties arise, as we work with ministers and parliamentarians and whatever. We'll look forward to meeting you, hopefully, if you can visit us next week. Needless to say, we are very much available to you and your colleagues if we can be of any assistance in trying to explain what we've been doing.
I think you've in fact summarized very well how the process has evolved, and particularly, I suppose, it has happened on two levels. The governmental system has recognized the value of this, be it in our Department of Finance or be it wherever, that there is great merit in trying to get on top of the poverty challenge and addressing it in an effective way. I think that goes without saying. As well, I mentioned all the key interest groups, such as employers, trade unions, and so on.
I think employers are an interesting example, because it's true in Ireland and I think it's true generally that people see that poverty has a significant economic downside as well. That is illustrated very much in Ireland, where, when the economy did take off and we created a huge number of jobs, we ended up not having the workers to fill them, because a lot of people didn't have the education, didn't have the training, didn't have the supports they needed. The previous speaker mentioned lone parents, which was a key example of this.
Therefore, that led to high levels of immigration, which of course we have no difficulty with, but it did highlight maybe the extent to which a failure to address poverty adequately, on the one hand, can have an economic impact, and the historic nature of poverty. A lot of the problems people had at that stage were the result of, in a way, failures in the past to provide proper education, to provide proper supports, and so on. So when these people reached working age, they weren't in a position to avail themselves of the job opportunities that became available.
As the process has gone on, more and more it's becoming clear that tackling poverty has a strong economic dimension as well, or economic advantages. I think that's very much echoed by the OECD, of which, of course, Canada is a very distinguished member. In a recent meeting there of ministers of social affairs, the OECD Secretariat made a very strong statement in that regard when they said that not only does poverty have social justice implications, but it also has severe economic implications currently and into the future. I know that all the member states, all the countries represented there, had no difficulty in accepting that and endorsing it.
I hope that helps to answer some of the issues you raised.