Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)

Skillnets has been already given its budget for 2009. There has been a reduction of 26% in the budget for the provision of training for those in work. It is part of the national skills strategy and the one step up programme for training people in unemployment. Let us be under no illusions. We must refocus and rededicate the scarce resources to provide training for people who lose their jobs. Many of the people who would have trained in Skillnets were low skilled workers and have recently lost their jobs. The priority obviously is to train those people and provide upskilling support for them.

Skillnets has already got its budget, but we will evaluate the resources for those who find themselves unemployed in order to train them.

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