Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I was speaking about the Cabinet, but the Minister of State might not have too much communication with them either.

A person on social welfare who wants to do a two, three or four-week FÁS course, must sign off social welfare. At the end of the course he or she must sign off from FÁS and sign back on social welfare. That process involves four different visits to various State agencies just to undertake a short course. The person involved will receive the same payment - the methodology is nonsensical.

Last year, the Tánaiste announced a work placement programme. In January, the Minister for Social and Family Affairs released a statement telling us how great was this programme. She congratulated IBEC on doing something similar. Fair dues to IBEC for that, but as of end-December 2009 only 129 places in the 2,000-placement programme had been filled. That scheme is not working, yet a Minister releases a statement saying how great it is based on those figures. That is nonsense.

The timing of FÁS courses is important. They begin at 8.30 a.m., which immediately excludes a large proportion of people. For example, one-parent families find it difficult to start at that time. Why can such courses not start at 9 a.m. or 9.15 a.m. just after primary schools open? Most of the jobs those people wish to be trained for also start at around 9 o'clock. A bit of common sense is required. Numbers attending social welfare offices are rising, yet the alternatives do not seem to exist.

In the summer of 2008, the Minister for Social and Family Affairs announced a plan to tackle unemployment for the under-25s. The result was that more people than ever in that category now find themselves unemployed. What worked in the boom is not enough now. The same old courses will not equip young people for a very different environment. People who walked into jobs ten years ago now find themselves facing competition from hundreds of others who are attending interviews. The unemployed include a new generation of people, many of whom have excellent qualifications. A six-week FÁS course to retrain them will not cut it.

Some schemes have been tweaked but we need a dramatically different approach. We should examine the option of offering payment for retraining and second-chance education. In County Offaly, one of the two counties I represent, there is one third-level institute, but there are only 50 PLC places for retraining. That is the solution we are being given by the Government, despite the current numbers of people unemployed. It is pathetic.

The huge blow of the Halifax closure announced yesterday effectively means another empty shop front on a main street in my constituency and others. That will add to the number of shops, pubs and restaurants that have shut their doors in the past few months. Many of them could not even wait for what they hoped would be a better Christmas period because their level of indebtedness was so high. They cannot get any relief from financial institutions. In small provincial towns and villages, they may be small employers but they are crucially important ones. They need to be supported in the same manner as larger companies, but there is nothing in the Bill to achieve that.

Government TDs are concerned with the importance of national and international commentators, but I would give them one word of warning. The real commentators on what the Government is doing in this Bill will be the Irish people. Their comments may not be quite so glowing.

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