Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Minister of State's response. I was disappointed to get a call from the Minister's private secretary only an hour ago to say she would not be able to take this debate. To be fair to her, she has met with me and many other Fianna Fáil Deputies to discuss this matter, about which there is grave concern. The work of a Deputy from one of the parties in government is often done behind the scenes rather than here in the Chamber. There are probably two instances in which we choose to raise matters in the House. The first is when we want to put on the record the work we are doing and the second is when we feel we might be getting the cuddly meeting treatment, where one meets with the Minister but, afterwards, one is not quite sure whether anything has changed. My fear is that we are getting a lot of consultation but I am not sure we are getting the change that is needed.

I acknowledge the Minister of State's reassurances on the finances and regarding existing providers. That is all very welcome and will go a long way to giving people reassurance on some of their concerns. However, I am not seeing what I would prefer, which is an assurance that services will stay local. I say that because a county-by-county provision would see Dublin city going from 11 different providers down to perhaps one to three. Even five would be too few. On the north side of Dublin, we have separate local employment services in Finglas and Ballymun as well as two covering the eastern side and the city centre. The idea that those four areas would be reduced into one does not account for a scenario, for instance, where there is a crisis in Dublin Port and a company closes. How could a regional service respond to that local need? If there were a huge boom of employment because of construction - perhaps in the Ballymun area, where we hope to build lots of new homes on empty lands and where we are looking to recruit tradespeople - there would not be the local employment services in the community to direct people from local schools or the local labour supply. If something like the Debenhams closure last year happened again, we would not have those local employment services in place to work with people who have lost their jobs. I hear everything the Minister of State said but I am also still hearing the word "regional" rather than the word "local", which is the cause of my concern.

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