Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

This is one of the common sense amendments that has been tabled to the Bill. The amendment must work out cost neutral. Even if it was not cost neutral, the Minister would still have to pay the allowance in the future to people interested in returning to education, whether at second or third level. The money must be paid anyway. Therefore, I cannot understand why the Government will continue to allow people become entrenched in long-term employment when the solution is there. Now that we expect to see the type of savings in FÁS that we should have seen over the past eight years, why not spend those savings on the people on whom it should have been spent?

Deputy Tuffy informed us recently that the universities had spare capacity of 12,000 places after all offers were made in October. The universities are crying out for funding and we now have a redundant workforce crying out for education. Why not marry one with the other? It is incomprehensible for the Minister not to do this as it is a common sense proposal. I appeal to the Minister to take this suggestion on board. Let us upskill the workforce as FÁS puts it so that we ensure that when the upturn comes, as it will, we will have a workforce prepared for it.

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