Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

If the Government were as good at managing the health service and at resourcing it as it is at providing tax breaks for those who want to invest in it, we would not have as many people presenting with and dying from cancer in the first place. The Taoiseach does not need to remind us of how close he is to the building industry — he is too close.

Regarding the fall in employment in construction, it is estimated that approximately 60,000 building workers will lose their jobs in residential construction over the course of the year and that approximately 40,000 of those will be absorbed back into construction activity in the type of construction the Taoiseach described on NDP projects. That will leave a net of approximately 20,000 building workers who will be out of work at the end of the year. What is the plan for those 20,000 workers? Is there a plan for retraining and re-education to allow them to re-enter the economy in some other way? That is the question they and their families want answered. They do not need a lecture from the Taoiseach on the various European assessments of the economy. They want to know where they will get a job next year after they are told to leave the building site. What is the future for those 20,000 building workers who will be out of work by the end of this year? Is there a plan to retrain them? Is there a plan for their re-absorption into the economy? Is there a plan for job opportunities or business opportunities for those people so that they can look forward to a future in employment and in work rather than on the dole?

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