Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

The payment is the same but the terms on the hours they can work and the opportunities they provide are different and I have a real difficulty with that.

Amendment No. 22 is about appropriate training and the value of some courses. Deputy Ó Snodaigh referred to the Forfás report, as I did on Committee Stage, on the quality of some of the FÁS courses. The report clearly states that the quality of some of what is on offer is very questionable. We are forcing this Bill through - and we have a few minutes to go - when the consequences for individuals will be quite extreme. Jobseekers will have an opportunity to refuse a course with good cause - and I would love to know what that good cause will be - but one-parent families will not have that option. I have a real difficulty with this.

When I read Deputy Ó Snodaigh's amendment I thought the Minister had listened to us on Committee Stage until I turned the page and discovered it was from him and not from the Minister. I know what the Minister's plan is in terms of what he is cutting but I have no idea how he plans to provide these places. As I stated previously, there is a huge lack of joined up thinking. Much responsibility for ensuring we will have these education and training places rests with a different Minister, namely Deputy Coughlan. We have heard nothing from her on how she intends to change the further education sector, what she intends to do with the third level sector or how we will ensure there is an adequate number of places for all of the groups whose payments will be changed or cut. There is no sign that anything will be done differently.

Different people will be in charge and Committee Stage amendments were made with regard to FÁS. The Minister will be in charge of it now and I have some idea of what he will do with it. However, I have no idea what will be different from the perspective of the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Coughlan. I would have liked to have seen that plan before taking the huge decisions to be made on this Bill.

See this speech in context