Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis an Teachta McConalogue as an ábhar seo a chur ar an Chlár. Tá sé rí-thábhachtach go ndéanfaimís déileáil leis an ábhar seo agus is trua nach bhfuair muid an deis déileáil i gceart leis roimh Nollag, uair a rinne an Rialtas cinneadh an seasamh seafóideach seo a ghlacadh maidir le cúrsaí iar árd-teistiméireachta.

Céim ar chúl atá i gceist anseo. Impím ar an Aire seasamh siar uaidh agus déanamh cinnte, seachas an gearradh siar seo a dhéanamh, níos mó airgid agus achmhainní a chur isteach ins na coláistí atá ag soláthar na gcúrsaí seo do mic léinn atá ag teacht ar ais ó gan bheith gafa le hoideachas nó a aithníonn nach bhfuil na scileanna acu chun dul chun cinn a dhéanamh.

We should have dealt with this matter just after Christmas. However, because of the manner in which the budget and other measures were announced - very quietly in some cases - the full effects of the cuts were not understood for a day or two after the announcements. This is a regressive step and the Government should reverse it. Rather than pursuing this step, it should be investing in PLC courses to a greater degree. This would be in line with everything the Government stated during the election campaign. I include the statements of Fine Gael, those in the programme for Government and the statements made in respect of Pathways to Work. I attended the launch of Pathways to Work - I believe I was the only Opposition Member in attendance – because I am interested and believe there needs to be a change. We need to use all the arms of the State together and exploit all the resources of the Department of Education and Skills to ensure we have the best possible outcome for everybody going through the education system and everybody who wishes to return to the system to improve their skills.

The affected people are, in many cases, those who have been out of the education system for many years. In my area, five colleges offer PLC courses. From dealing with my constituents and people from outside my area who want to attend the colleges, which are experts in the fields pertaining to their courses, I am aware the courses are oversubscribed. If the courses were not delivering, people would not be seeking to do them. There is proof that these are the very courses that are required at this time to rebuild the economy and lay the groundwork for its future.

Those courses are often innovative and well ahead of courses in some of the universities. Sometimes the universities are playing catch-up. There was a huge demand for animation courses in my area because the Oscar winners who produced "Avatar" were trained in Ballyfermot college. That is proof of the success of courses that could be affected by the Government's cuts. The Minister of State can shake his head all he likes but if the Government reduces the staffing criteria, that will affect the delivery of courses. Some of the colleges not only do not have the staff to deliver them, they do not have the space or the equipment to deliver them. The roof of Ballyfermot College is leaking and it has been for many years but thankfully it is now being addressed but in the meantime where are extra classes to be delivered?

We can go all way back into history and say we can blame whoever. In this case this is a decision that comes on top of other cuts in the education sector carried out by the Minister of State's Government. This is being done on his watch. This will affect the PLC sector as a whole. As Deputy O'Brien said, this will possibly result in the loss of 500 teachers delivering PLC courses, the equivalent of 200 full-time teaching posts. They will not be won back because what the Minister of State is saying to those teachers is "Goodbye, go to Germany, Australia or somewhere else where you can ply your trade because you are not wanted here. To all those students who would have availed of and gained an advantage from completing these courses, he is saying "Forget about it, you are not wanted here, we are not going to train you up because we do not have the jobs". " Perhaps that is what the Government decided at the Cabinet today, namely, that it will not be able to produce the jobs so why bother training these young people? Its attitude may be "why not cut a bit more and make sure they leave as soon as they have sat their leaving certificate or perhaps before that". Why not put them on the emigration boat when they are in the pram and then it would not even have to educate them? That is how ridiculous this is. For us as a country to come out of this economic crisis, we need the best possible educational standards. We also need the best possible training and to meet the demands of the market, we must ensure we have people trained to deliver those skills to employers when those jobs come up or in the meantime we should create our own jobs. This is a retrograde step.

The Minister can make much of the Springboard and the JobBridge schemes and they are fine but in many cases what they produce is only yellow pack in comparison to what is being produced by the PLCs. In many cases people from those courses go straight on to work - in other cases people go on to university and excel at that level - and there is much more progression from them than the JobBridge scheme will ever produce.

The Minister of State can row back from this. He can reconsider this and instead of cutting, the Government should invest further in this sector.

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