Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. He says we may have different data and that is maybe something we can engage on. I look forward to engaging with him on this issue. However, he should remember one thing. The course deadline for applicants is September. A decision seems to have been made between March and June by the ETB, with little or no consultation with the people on the ground. How can it make a decision on how many people are going? People are contacting me saying they are interested and they are sorry when they see on social media that it is closing. They then contact local media. There is an issue here. The ETB made a decision at an early stage to pull this, and it is not giving that opportunity. Remember, it is Skibbereen. We can talk about Morrison's island. If you talk to people in Castletownbere, the Beara Peninsula or the Sheep's Head Peninsula, in Skibbereen, Bantry and the surrounds, and ask young people to go to Cork city every day to do a course, they cannot afford to do that. It is a crazy situation. The ETB is closing it quite simply because of its geographical position. That is why it is closing it. Everyone on the ground in west Cork will tell you that. It has been allowed to make that decision. I got on to the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, who has come back to me with the ETB spin. I do not want the ETB spin. I want the human spin. There is a horticultural course that was available to people in Skibbereen that will be closed down. Will the Taoiseach intervene and make sure that does not happen?

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