Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy Enright for sharing time. I am pleased to have an opportunity to say a few words on this important motion. Week after week, throughout the country, we hear announcements of job losses. The Government has shown itself to be helpless to take action to stem the tide of unemployment and job losses. In addition to the Minister and the Government, the agencies charged with the responsibility of creating jobs have failed to show initiative to create new jobs or safeguard existing jobs.

I have raised previously with the Minister of State, Deputy Kelleher, a decision to shed a large number of jobs at the CIGNA company in Loughrea. The jobs in question were not in manufacturing and were transferred abroad. The loss of such a large number of service jobs was unique in the west. The IDA, Enterprise Ireland and other agencies failed to intervene immediately to identify what could be rescued in the time available before the company closed its outlet. When asked what action it could take, Enterprise Ireland stated it could provide a maximum of €5,000 for consultancy to generate new items of production. This shows how much at sea the agency was with regard to this industry. All I asked it to do was to be proactive in County Galway, which is haemorrhaging jobs, by auditing the needs of factories and industries it had helped to establish or nurture during the good times to ensure further jobs were not lost. It has not done so.

We were informed that a new economic forum — we no longer have task forces — has been established. The idea that such a forum would not sit in the area where job losses have taken place is foreign to me. The forum in question, which was established under the chairmanship of the county manager, sits at county buildings in Galway, far removed from the reality of what occurred. With such a detached, arm's length attitude, we will not make any progress. Nevertheless, I appreciate the Minister of State's successful efforts to attract funding from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund to assist ongoing training for those affected by unemployment.

People want to work and those who have lost their jobs want to up-skill to enable them to return to the workplace. In this regard, I ask the Minister of State to consider two proposals. Community employment schemes have been a valuable asset in creating jobs in areas in which no employment alternatives were available. Under these schemes, community work was done which would not otherwise have been done. Many people involved in these schemes acquired skills which allowed them, in the boom times, to create work for themselves and move off the live register. I ask the Minister of State to ensure these schemes are supported.

I also ask the Minister of State to take action to eliminate the barriers faced by those who wish to access the back to education allowance. People do not want to sit at home and dwell on the fact that they have lost their jobs. I ask that action be taken to ensure back to education allowances are available to those who need them in the near future.

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