THE US ambassador to Ireland, Ms Jean Kennedy Smith, has called on the American business community in Ireland to do more to help the long term unemployed.

Speaking to the American Chamber of Commerce of Ireland in Cork yesterday, Ms Kennedy Smith said businesses must be willing to "widen their recruitment rules and open their doors to the long term unemployed.

The unemployed cannot be helped unless businesses initiate policies that make work more realistic for all men and women, providing child care, offering flexible schedules so that anyone who is willing is able to work.

She added that this was an ideal time for US companies to consider expanding their sourcing of components and services' across the Border to Northern Ireland.