Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)

Unemployment is rising at the rate of 1,500 per day. Two thirds of those unemployed are men and 25% of them are under the age of 25. Unpaid redundancies are costing the Government €50 million per year. The estimated cost to the State for each unemployed person is around €20,000, when social welfare contributions and taxes forgone to the State are taken into account. I estimate that the total cost of 400,000 unemployed people is €8 billion per year, but if Deputy Varadkar's figures are right, then it will cost €10 billion per year. That is a huge amount of resources.

Can these resources be invested in educating and upskilling the potential workforce? The key recommendation of the national skills strategy group, which reported in 2007, was that the education sector is the major vehicle for the necessary upskilling which is required. We told the Minister about the redundancies last year, yet she just threw up her hands. Why was that redundancy package not put in place last year? There is no use sticking one's finger in the dyke, when the water is cascading in and about to drown us all.

Why are the 51,000 people all attending FÁS? Why should they not be placed with VECs, which could provide another opportunity for retraining. FETAC, PLCs and institutes of technology provide a wide range of courses that allow for upskilling and retraining. They can focus on the design and delivery of courses in sustainable energy and green technology techniques. Why are the redundant apprentices all attending FÁS?

A headline in one today's newspapers states that the education cuts will cost at least 9,000 school leavers and jobless people a place on a further education course from next September. There are many jobs being lost at 33 VECs. Is there any joined up thinking taking place at all?

Is the Minister going to do anything for indigenous industry? Are we afraid of bringing in employment grants to help to get people back to work? Is the back-to-work allowance scheme going to be expanded? Will the VTOS be expanded? Is the back-to-education allowance still curtailed by the imposition of stupid limits? The Minister should get rid of all the eligibility criteria and get the people moving. We are in a new situation that requires drastic solutions, not the same solutions dressed up in a new bottle.

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