Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

The Deputy continually seems to take a negative view of opportunities that have now been made available to 2,700 mostly young people to get a foot on the ladder of employment. Some weeks ago I launched a scheme whereby through Job Skills engineers who had lost their jobs in the construction industry were getting a new chance at employment and switching over to working in medical devices and related areas of activity.

Countries such as Germany, which have managed to keep their unemployment rates much lower than here, have a variety of initiatives that allow people to gain vital work experience. Only last week the Deputy's colleague in the Seanad, Senator Ó Clochartaigh, lamented that lone parents in his area could not access the scheme and he asked me to open the scheme to a wider group of people. I understand why the Senator would have wanted it: the feedback from JobBridge is quite positive. We have been evaluating it on a continual basis and want all the leading Irish companies involved, including the company the Deputy mentioned, because it gives a chance to a person who could not otherwise get a foot into the door of employment.

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