Pat Moylan (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and thank him for his excellent presentation. I also welcome the important Fourth Report of the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs. It is important that such reports forward plan the needs of the country and the demands of employers and business people who want to ensure the best people are qualified.

The transition year is important because when students reach that stage they have experienced four years of secondary education and have an opportunity to forward plan and decide what skills, trade or profession they wish to take up. The importance of science subjects, which was referred to today and has been in the past, must also be emphasised to young people who must be encouraged to undertake the maximum number of subjects in which they have the ability to get marks. As the old saying goes, education is no load to carry, which is particularly true of science subjects.

FÁS must be complimented because of its involvement in training. It has always been to the forefront in ensuring the needs of industry and business are met with excellently qualified people. Perhaps it is not important to some people but the FÁS social community schemes in various areas were important. Many young people were well educated on those schemes. There is an ideal opportunity for FÁS to ask people under 35 who are on those schemes to leave them and take on a trade. After three, four or five years training, such people would emerge with a trade and would have 35 years to give to the country. In almost all cases, people with a trade are guaranteed employment and it is no load to carry.