Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

There are other groups that we can ensure will benefit from the same approach. We are making a prudent move and ensuring that it works properly in the first place. We will see what the needs are and how the project works in the pilot areas and then expand it elsewhere.

There are many other sectors we can look at and we are doing so. Some employers are struggling to hold onto their companies and are forced to put their employees on three-day weeks. There are very good opportunities for those people who have two days to be able to upskill, use FÁS training and use the capacity that is in the institutes of technology and VECs through PLC courses. Apprentices who have not been able to finish their on-the-job work element can come back in and finish the education element of their training. The co-operation we are seeing between all the different agencies is something that will benefit those individuals. The Cabinet sub-committee and the working together of the Tánaiste, the Minister for Education and Science and myself will ensure that we see a flexibility in Departments that, dare I say, we have not seen before. People are willing to make changes to ensure we target all of these individual groups.

Ensuring that people have the skills needed for the future is another key element. It is not just about giving people a course for the sake of it, although all education is valuable. However, the future skills group has in the past been very good at identifying for us that we need skilled people in the areas of pharmaceuticals, medicare devices, life sciences and maths. That group is at present reviewing what will be the needs for the future. There is a constant message about the value of science so we can lead into research and development, which is at the core of the smart economy and the core of our future plans for this country.

For students filling in CAO forms this weekend, my first advice is always to do what they would like to do. However, there is key advice for young people, which is not to be influenced by the recession economy they see today, because when they finish their education, we will be out of this recession and those young people will be coming into a workforce that will need their skills. The second piece of advice is that the skills they will need are in the sciences and maths, which is where the investment is and where the training will be available. I ask them to seriously consider those areas for their futures.

In agreeing the framework, I know that in the next few days, with all of the leaders and the willingness of a public who always had a real fighting spirit and great drive and determination, we can agree a process that will help us to make serious savings in expenditure but at the same time to regenerate an economy and give back to the Irish people the hope and optimism they have always had. It has been sliding in the recent past but I know we can do that over the next few weeks because of the willingness of the people.

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