Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

It is time for the rhetoric to meet the reality in this regard or even the reality to meet the rhetoric. Only last week a constituent told me he had called into an FÁS office to seek information pertaining to getting the correct accreditation to take up an opportunity that might arise, to find out if there was a training course, plans or an initiative in this area and he was told there was not. What does that tell me about what the Taoiseach had to say here a month ago? How does that say there is a concerted effort, a plan in place or, as the Tánaiste said again here today, that line Ministers with responsibility in this area have met. It is the not the case on the ground. The situation on the ground does not match the rhetoric emanating from the Tánaiste's side of the House.

Despite the spin and the rhetoric, it is becoming more obvious day by day and month and month that the situation on the ground is not matching what the Tánaiste and his Ministers say. I have asked the Tánaiste have the Ministers met to discuss a plan? I have asked him has he or his Government directed Bord Gáis to make provision that those jobs that will emanate from this initiative will be offered to people on the live register. There is nothing in what he has said that tells me or the constituent to whom I referred that there is a plan, prospects, or an initiative in place by the Government, let alone what the Government will put to Europe with regard to other initiatives that will emanate from the growth pact we talked about that will begin in June and to which we look forward.

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