Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I can assure the Deputy that they will have my full attention, as will everywhere else in the country. However, there has been a problem for a long time in towns such as Tralee where there are many young men not working. What Deputy Tom Fleming is saying about the construction industry is correct. We need to ensure as many of these young men as possible have an opportunity, if that is their wish, to be involved in the construction business as it returns. That is a choice many of them want to make.

We are revamping apprenticeships. Just last week, as the Deputy probably knows, the OPW opened a special apprenticeship training course in County Kerry covering traditional but very important skills such as stonemasonry and other specialist construction skills. The Deputy may actually have attended its launch.

See this speech in context