Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

When taken in conjunction with the VAT increases the Government will announce tomorrow, everything it is doing is cutting jobs. While I understand the Government is obliged to make savings, the biggest loser should not be the 450,000 people in receipt of unemployment benefit. The Minister's statement contains nothing about trying to get these people back onto proper working education and training schemes, except in respect of the cuts the Minister has introduced in these areas, such as the aforementioned measures pertaining to postgraduates. The Minister should have used this opportunity to deal with the issue concerning FÁS, which now is to be abolished, and the 40,000 people who were asked to show up for an interview for job placement but who did not show up. This year, 40,000 people did this under the Minister's watch but he has taken no action in this regard.

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