Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

As a former múinteoir, the Minister will know that many young people, particularly those between 18 and 23, who participate in a FÁS course have a very high drop out rate, and many of them have serious literacy and numeracy problems. Putting up a barrage of so-called courses will be of no benefit to many of these young males. The Minister should consider putting forward aggressive, constructive courses of 12 to 13 weeks' duration, containing classes of no more than 14 and which deal with their particular educational problems. There is no point in bringing them to a short-term course just because they are young people. They have particular problems with numeracy and literacy, and the Minister could avail of the many young teachers who are qualified to teach those courses. These courses could be better managed by FÁS than NALA, which might not have the capacity to deal with that range. This is a socially constructive suggestion. I know many of these young people and they have problems that will not be sorted out by a course for the sake of having a course.

The Minister should look at the statistics for young males between the age of 18 and 23 who drop out. The capacity exists to have really good, aggressive courses that deal with their educational problems. There are qualified teachers hanging around unemployed and they could usefully do this in a very constructive fashion. It could be managed under the aegis of outreach courses at FÁS. If the Minister takes the time to talk to many of those directors around the country who do a first class job, they will tell her to do exactly what I am putting forward.

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