John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for his kind words. The Fine Gael and Labour Party road show we saw yesterday was all spin and no substance. It is hard to countenance that three days are being taken up in this House to provide a platform for self-congratulation by the Government. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, talked for 57 minutes between them about the recovery we apparently are seeing. A recovery may be taking place in Dublin and some of the cities but it certainly has not filtered down through the regions. In Wexford, for example, we still have a very high unemployment rate and very little interest from IDA Ireland or Enterprise Ireland in doing anything to alleviate it.

The break-up of FÁS has created a major stalemate which has seen us getting lovely materials from the education and training boards and other organisations but very little real substance in terms of provision for training and upskilling people and giving them an opportunity to move into new areas of employment. The education and training boards were set up in a blaze of glory. In my own county, however, the board has met only once since its establishment a year ago following the local elections. We have young people and older people who want to retrain and upgrade their skills but they are not getting an opportunity to do so. Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland give very little support to the regions. In the south east, certainly, we have had very little help from them, as I said. In fact, in the past 12 months we had only one visit from IDA Ireland.

While it is good to see the recovery that is happening in Dublin and some of our other cities, it has certainly not filtered down to the area in which I live.

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