Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)

I was speaking recently with an employer in the tree services industry in the Waterford constituency who in 2009 took three people off the live register and also took on two people who had just lost their jobs. Some six or seven weeks ago he met with a young man who is a qualified block layer but who had been unemployed. The young man asked this particular employer for employment. The employer decided that he would take him on and in order to do so, he needed to undergo a training course which the employer set up and paid for. The course cost £912. The young man began on Monday, 27 September and concluded on Friday, 1 October. He further underwent his assessment for his City and Guilds qualification on Monday, 4 October. When this young man went to collect his jobseeker's allowance he was told that he did not quality for that week.

Against the background of 450,000 people unemployed nationally and 15,000 unemployed in the Waterford constituency, surely every effort should be made by Departments and State agencies to assist in every way in getting unemployed people into employment. This was a case where there was a job waiting for the person involved, the employer paid for his pre-employment training and the Department of Social Protection was not prepared to pay the jobseeker's allowance to this young man while he was preparing for employment. The employer provided a letter outlining the position regarding the course and stated that the young man had been in receipt of no payment. The employer in this case went on to tell me that in his view, 1,500 positions can be created in the tree servicing sector nationally but that employers need assistance in terms of grant aid towards the provision of the required training for people to enter this industry, where although the work is hard, the pay is relatively good.

Every person who returns to work on average benefits the Exchequer to the tune of €20,000. In the present crisis Departments and agencies must be flexible and prompt in supporting the areas of the economy where jobs can be created. Companies such as the one I describe pay tax and PRSI into the Exchequer and the more people they employ, the better the return to the State. Not alone is the qualification in regard to the course that I have already mentioned one that is required in Ireland but it is a City and Guilds qualification recognised throughout the world. The qualification described is in regard to the use of chainsaws and if an employer in this industry decides to upskill employees there should be grant aid assistance available against the background of the employer paying for the course, paying the employee's wages and not having production from that employee in the week of the course.

See this speech in context