Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

Go raibh maith agat, a Aire Stáit. When I raised this issue in a Topical Issue debate last October, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn said, "I share with the Deputy my concerns about the maladministration of this set of programmes by the previous administration. I will be honest with the Deputy, it is not a satisfactory situation". I agree with the statement he made on that occasion.

While this Government cannot be held responsible for the mess that Fianna Fáil made of the Dell, Waterford Crystal or SR Technics programmes, it is responsible for the largest programme for redundant construction workers, as €55 million is available to retrain them. The redundant construction workers programme, which the Government has overseen for the past 15 months, is probably the worst organised scheme in the State. Workers who are eligible to benefit from the funds were not contacted until 19 December 2011, some ten months after the Government took office. Of the original 9,089 workers named in the application, only 337 have accessed any additional support via the EGF, as of the end of April 2012.

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