Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I do not believe the Taoiseach has any sense of the public anger at the lavish extravagance and splurging of taxpayers' moneys involved. Nor do I believe he has any sense of the significant unease that this whole episode has caused for the majority of public servants who work conscientiously and for whom this carry-on is exposing them to being scapegoated and ridiculed.

The Taoiseach is a former Minister for Labour. There are few people in this House who have the understanding of the consequences that he has of the relationship between FÁS and the parent Department and Minister. Will he deal with what we have heard over the past two days with some urgency? It is not acceptable that some process will work it out and it will all disappear into the ether again. There is much anger about this. We need to hear from the Government what action will be taken.

Will the Taoiseach agree that FÁS and its top executives would be better serving the country in dealing with the growing crisis with apprenticeships? If we do not register apprenticeships now, we will not have the trades in four years' time when hopefully we will be through the current economic difficulties. Would it not be better for FÁS top executives to stay in Ireland dealing with the apprenticeship problem rather than gallivanting around the world at the taxpayers' expense?

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