Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)

A budget will be introduced next week and that will bring finality to many of the issues being raised by the Deputy. Skillnets has been given its allocation for 2009. It is the case that there is a reduction, but the priority must be with people who now find themselves unemployed and no one in the House could disagree with that. We must use all our resources to ensure such people at least have some form of training, re-skilling and reorientation of their skills available. This will assist their efforts to try to find work in the limited opportunities available, but at least when the upturn comes, they would have been given that opportunity.

See this speech in context