Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is why it was so responsive. Today the Government will meet at 2.30 p.m. for a special meeting on the jobs action plan. The only thing that will come out of that meeting is headlines and it will be forgotten about again. I said already this morning that I tabled a parliamentary question to each Minister on what their Departments did in 2012 on the jobs action plan. I have received detailed responses and we are going through them to see what is real. The best response I got was from the Minister for Finance, the man who writes the cheques - perhaps the real Taoiseach. He said it was not a matter for him but a matter for the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. The Minister for Finance has washed his hands of the jobs initiative. It appears that in the changes to the PLC courses we have a Government that says it responds to the skills shortage. The Joint Committee on Education and Skills, chaired by Deputy Damien English, has drawn up a fantastic document on skills shortages, on which I compliment Senator Deirdre Clune. The Minister has undermined the PLC sector, which has been so responsive and flexible. Taking 500 jobs out of the sector will not do anything to address the skills shortage.

Much has been said about FÁS and SOLAS. The work in respect of SOLAS was under way in the Department of Education and Skills prior to the arrival of the Minister, Deputy Ruairí Quinn. It was under way when the former Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills, Mary Coughlan, was in office. I cannot recall whether it was the Deputy English or Deputy Eamonn Maloney who said the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, would be the new Donogh O'Malley. I am afraid not.

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