Joe McKenna

No.

I mean, as we've talked about many times, the country's debt situation is not good and they're in trouble with the European Union because the budget estimates for the next year are way above the 3% limit for the EU.

I mean, I was surprised when I saw that the government has approved a 934 million euro labor decree hiring bonuses for young people, women and workers in troubled economic areas.

incentives to hire these people.

I don't know that that's going to make a difference.

And I'll tell you why.

When you hire someone initially, it's really, really difficult to get rid of them if they're not up to scratch.

And I think most employers would be very nervous about hiring people even with these kinds of incentives.

Well, I don't think there are a lot of government handouts for people who are not working.

If they're not working, they're probably protected and taken care of by their families.

Having said that, I think young people are very frustrated.

They are looking for opportunities which don't exist here.

They're still leaving the country because there's not enough here.

And migrants are certainly filling those jobs that nobody wants to do, that's for sure.

Yeah, look, it looks like all the restaurants are doing very well.

There's plenty of gelaterias opening every five minutes and pizza by the slice.

But I was shocked at the weekend.

I went to Spoleto, this beautiful town, two-hour train ride from Rome, lovely medieval town, and the number of shops and businesses for sale or rent that were closing down was quite shocking.

And the locals said people are just not coming in, they're shopping online or they're going to the shopping malls outside the city.

It's a similar sort of town.