Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We have received a message from RTE's Oireachtas unit stating it is receiving considerable interference from mobile telephones. It wants me, as Chairman, to remind members to switch them off. I have mine off.

The Minister mentioned the European Social Fund, ESF, and the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, EGF. Former workers with Team Aer Lingus might have received some of this funding. Problems arose over access to funding. Might we have an opportunity to influence reform in regard to the fund? In the 1980s and 1990s, ESF funding was very important to our development. There are a considerable number of ESF-funded courses that predated free fees. Can we get this kind of funding again? It would obviously help with our third level funding issue. This issue could be very much associated with the skills shortages in Ireland.