Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)

When debating an economic downturn, the obvious course of action is to plan our way out of it. There is no use in being negative when faced with the economic statistics we have. Some of the suggestions to tackle the downturn by the Taoiseach in the past several days, however, do not augur well for forward planning. When it is proposed to save €10 million from FÁS apprenticeships, it is difficult to see this as a thought-out process. Having an apprentice's background myself in the good days when many were offered by the Irish Sugar Company, Bord na Móna and the ESB, I know there is a need to positively plan for future industrial development. If this funding is taken away from current FÁS apprenticeships, it will be a negative approach to industrial development and erasing unemployment.

Last week, Mr. Rody Molloy, a fellow Kildare man and chief executive of FÁS, explained to the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment his plans to negotiate the completion of apprenticeship courses for those unfortunate apprentices in the building trade who have been laid off. It must be devastating for a youngster who was proud of being, say an electrician, to believe FÁS would look after him with a placement. I have heard the developers and others claim the upturn will come. However, the tradesmen necessary to ensure the upturn happens are being ignored by the Government's proposal to save funding in this area. I hope the Minister of State, Deputy McGuinness, will argue for the importance of having tradesmen for the next economic phase and industrial development. Unfortunately, the Taoiseach has not seen this and this negative approach does not augur well for us planning our way out of this recession.

Small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, are vitally important to every town, village and city. They have always been a solid source of employment. Some counties have never experienced the massive job creation by one factory. It was the SMEs that provided employment in those areas.

In Kildare South, IDA Ireland acquired four sites for industrial development in the past 30 years. A farmer is grazing cattle on one since 1973, an absolute disgrace. The local football club used one of the other sites but the authority tried to move it on. For the remaining sites, IDA Ireland sold them to the local authorities and the county enterprise board not at the price it paid for them 30 years ago but at today's prices. It wanted to get the profit out of its own failures.

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