Tackling unemployment, particularly long-term unemployment, has become a political mantra for those in power in recent years.

With a booming economy exposing the risk of skills shortages in more and more areas, there have been a series of evermore enterprising initiatives to match those out of work as a result of the decline of traditional industry with the skills needed for the work available today.

Still, the Margin has yet to see Irish job agencies resorting to the tactics of some of their peers over the water. In an effort not to offend their customers, one British job centre recently banned the use of such terms as "hard working" and "enthusiastic". And why? Apparently these perjorative terms were seen as discriminatory. Quite right, too, says the Margin. What this boom needs is staff who are indolent and apathetic . . .