One year ago, in the 2002 Budget Statement, Finance Minister Eugene Cox announced that Government would look into launching an unemployment insurance scheme and had set aside $1 million for the purpose.

A year later, little has changed except that the consultation process has begun, although the public knows no more about the idea than it did 12 months ago.

Who will pay for the scheme, who will be eligible and for how long, to what degree job seekers will be required to actively look for work or to engage in retraining are all unknowns. The bigger question is whether it is necessary at all.

As was predicted a year ago, trade unions think it is while employers are increasingly unhappy with the idea. In this case, the employers are right.

Indeed, a year ago, with September 11 a recent memory and the spectre of war and recession ahead, many - including this newspaper - expected the economy to struggle and the possibility of job losses was quite real.

Instead, the economy was resilient and the Island is in the happy position of having full employment. So why have a scheme that now seems more unlikely than ever to be used?

And if the intent of the scheme is to help people in seasonal unemployment, then the answer is not provide them with unemployment insurance but to improve tourism's performance in the so-called shoulder months.

As this newspaper said a year ago, this money would be better spent improving education and training so that all those people who want a job can get one.

The greater problem for Bermuda is not the unemployed, but as Transport Minister Ewart Brown said, the unemployable, for whom unemployment insurance is irrelevant. Using education and training to get the so-called wall-sitters into the workforce -where there are jobs aplenty - is where Government should be putting its focus, instead of on providing a solution to a problem that does not exist.