Owners of small firms should examine new resource pools of potential recruits and be imaginative in marketing the advantages of their businesses, Prof Joyce O'Connor, president of the National College of Ireland said. She said that the young population was declining but the number of early retired or women willing to return to work was increasing. That market was flexible, productive and had experience "that you cannot quantify", she said. "We have to change our attitude to women in the home. Look at that market. It is absolutely tremendous . . . It is a myth that older people are slower, more expensive and less flexible." She said that people on the Live Register represented "an enormous pool of talent", and there were people with disabilities who were defined negatively "in our language". "What we want to do is to recruit the right people for the right jobs . . . Would you work for an employer who would call you dependent, unambitious, lazy?" she asked. Small firms could be attractive to potential employees, she said. People set up in business to be able to quickly react to challenges, for flexibility and for informality.