Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I thank all Members who contributed to the discussion and compliment Deputies Róisín Shortall and Willie Penrose on bringing the motion to the House. I am extremely disappointed by the Government's response to the motion. The amendment proposed by it is defensive, self-congratulatory and argues for business as usual.

The Government is abandoning the unemployed. In much of the commentary about our current economic circumstances, there has been little or no attention or consideration given to those losing their jobs. We all agree that the solution for people losing their jobs is to get new jobs and back into employment as soon as possible. However, while people who have lost their jobs are waiting for their new jobs to turn up, they must live and have an income. They must have something to do every day and must have the sense there is a future for them.

The Labour Party motion sets out eight specific measures to deal with the immediate needs of people who become unemployed. The Taoiseach acknowledged last week that the number of people likely to be unemployed here may be 450,000 or more by the end of this year. That is a significant number of people with immediate needs. We propose that they be treated with dignity at social welfare offices and with respect when they turn up to a community welfare officer seeking assistance. We want an understanding of needs and to ensure that measures are put in place to provide them with something to do and the opportunity to improve themselves while unemployed. They must be provided with opportunities that give them a sense of hope while they are waiting for new employment.

Unfortunately, however, what we got from the Government yesterday and this evening was the sense that it does not really grasp the scale of what is happening or realise the huge numbers of people becoming unemployed with real needs. For example, the Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science spoke this evening about the moneys the Government has provided for further education. He is missing the point. In 2004, the Government put a cap on the number of people who could go into further education colleges or post-leaving certificate courses.

The year 2004 was the height of our economic boom and full employment. It was understandable then for the Government to decide it did not want people doing post-leaving certificate courses when they could well join the workforce. We are in a different situation now. The cap on those places should be lifted immediately so that people becoming unemployed can get educational opportunities. We should use the infrastructure that exists to provide them.

Let me put the problem in practical terms for the Minister of State. In my constituency, the social welfare office or unemployment exchange is located in Cumberland Street. Like at many social welfare offices and employment exchanges, I have seen many unemployed people go to that office for the first time over the past few months. I have seen them queuing in the rain along Cumberland Street.

The Dún Laoghaire College of Further Education is just behind that office and it is capable of providing courses for many of the people going into the social welfare office. Next September, young people just leaving school will go to the social welfare office. They will never have had a job, will not be able to get a job and will claim unemployment or jobseeker's payments. Would it not be better for those young people to simply go round the back of that office to the college to do a course? That would be better for them and their families. It would also be less expensive for the State. They would be doing a course for which at most they would qualify for a student grant, rather than being supported by unemployment payments for doing nothing. It would be better for them to have something useful to do, pursue a course and be better equipped to take up employment opportunities in the future.

The Government will have to break out of the straitjacket it is in regarding its thinking on the unemployed, the social services and the education services. It should put the pieces together and ensure there are services, educational opportunities and a new way to deal with a new and growing wave of unemployment that will be with us for at least some time until the economy improves and employment is provided.

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