Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The consequence of that investment is that there will be 2,500 jobs on family farms in a region from south Leinster right up to Louth. I met with representatives of the Construction Industry Federation and I told them that, just as the cowboys had been weeded out of the agricultural sector 20 years ago, we needed a construction sector that was capable of efficiently delivering high-quality buildings and was trustworthy. Many members of that sector are capable of that. We have some brilliant examples of wonderful buildings, but we need to get to a point at which the sector can contribute far more successfully to the development of the Irish economy. Who are these people? They are tradesman, contractors, plasterers, bricklayers, blocklayers, electricians, chippies and whatever else. I meet them all the time. Part of the reason the Minister for Finance brought in a scheme for 2014 and the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources brought in the REFIT scheme was to allow ordinary registered and competent workers to do these works all over the country. When Irish Water begins its water metering programme, we will require a local social dividend in the form of numbers taken off the local live register. These people are ordinary workers and I meet with them all the time. They are very happy to be engaged here.

I was at the EDI Centre in Longford with Deputy Bannon last week. He was delighted. I presented 18 certificates of competence to different tradespeople. Who were these people? They were blocklayers, plasterers and carpenters. They did a ten-month course on a range of matters related to heritage conservation. We have so many listed buildings, walls, cemeteries and castles, yet we have scant high-quality courses to allow tradespeople to qualify in these areas. They are ordinary workers. They want to be out there doing things and they did this course in Longford which provides them with a validation for these works from a Scottish entity. The Deputy should not assume that just because I stand in this position, I am removed from dealing with ordinary people who do extraordinary jobs all the time. We need to have more of them involved. The certificates were a recognition of the work that they did themselves, which also led to employment.

I do not know about the difficulties that apply in the firm in Birr, but clearly the facilities that are available to settle disputes are well tried and tested, and there are various opportunities to get involved in that.

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