Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I understand that WorldSkills Council Ireland manages the selection, training and participation of Ireland's team for the WorldSkills competition. The council is chaired by the Department of Education and Science and is representative of the various partners in vocational education and training, including the Department of Education and Science, FÁS, the institutes of technology, the Dublin Institute of Technology, Fáilte Ireland and the Irish Vocational Education Association.

Ireland's participation in this competition, involving almost 50 countries with 824 participants in 47 skills areas, is essential to benchmark our strong craft and technical vocational education training against the technological advances in training in other countries. The WorldSkills competition was established with the aim of achieving world-class standards and competencies in commerce, services and industry. Ireland first competed in 1957 and hosted the competition in Dublin in 1963 and in Cork in 1979.

Ireland has an excellent record in this competition and finished third overall in 1999. In 2005 the Irish team finished seventh in the world with three gold medals, one silver, one bronze and nine medallions of excellence. In Japan 2007, the Irish team achieved one gold medal, four bronze medals and ten medallions of excellence and finished 13th of 47 participating counties.

The results achieved in the WorldSkills competition signal to multinational companies wishing to invest in Ireland that its young people have a wide range of skills, knowledge and competencies to support technically advanced industries and service providers.

In the context of a global economy and Ireland's economic success over the past decade, there has been a very significant increase in the number of young people engaged in apprenticeship training and education. This is reflected in the increase in competitors from skills areas by over 50% from the 2001 competition.

This year Ireland sent 85 people to the competition, including 54 competitors, judges and team leaders, and 31 others, including logistical and support staff. Some 37 of the 85 team members were FÁS apprentices, experts, technical staff or WorldSkills Council Ireland members.

The increased numbers from the previous competition are directly attributable to the inclusion in the competition of four additional skills areas, a change in competition rules requiring an additional team leader and an additional six technical supports for all skills areas due to the dispersed nature of the competition site in ten different buildings.

Participating organisations in the competition contribute pro rata to the cost in accordance with the numbers from each organisation. I understand that it is expected that FÁS will contribute around €480,000 towards the cost of preparing and sending the Irish team to participate in the WorldSkills competition in Japan in November 2007. This includes the cost of pre-departure training, the payment of FÁS training allowances during the pre-departure and competition periods, materials and equipment for use in the competition and the travel, accommodation and subsistence costs of the FÁS participants, other than the apprentices.

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