Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I tabled the amendment in response to the issue raised. I am not in a position to change it now on Report Stage — I have just introduced it and would like to see it enacted. There is a requirement to encourage those who avail of the training offer to be in a position to return to the workforce. The course is required to be completed within six months of the employee being made redundant, which avoids having a six-month period after which the person could do the six-month course. The idea is to try to get people straight into a training regime as part of their redundancy package. It is part of the redundancy package, not supplementary to it. It is far better to encourage people into a training course immediately rather than providing a length of time within which a course could be taken, as they might step back for a while.

We are facilitating a training fee of up to €5,000 as part of a redundancy package. A person might well decide to take the €5,000 in addition to the €20,000, or whatever sum he or she is getting, and do whatever he or she wants to do, including some of the points the Deputy is making. It is not restricted. It is part of a bigger lump sum allowing people to decide where they want to go to change their career thereafter. If it is to be part of that redundancy package, the logic behind the proposal is that we need to see an immediate movement into training places. There are many other additional schemes people would be able to take up, which would meet many of the circumstances about which the Deputy is talking. I ask that my amendment be accepted and we will see how it works out. It should genuinely cover the cases about which people are concerned.

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