Brendan Daly (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this important debate. I compliment the Minister of State on the work she has done in the Department in the past four years. Earlier she outlined the enormous amount of work she has done and the number of initiatives she has taken since coming to this office. By any standards the additional finances directed to this area and the additional energy the Minister of State has put into developing the initiatives in the area have established clear guidelines for the future of adult education and further learning for some time to come. The figures for the funding devoted to this area speak for themselves.

Not only has the Minister of State taken a number of initiatives in this area, she has also encouraged other Departments to get involved. I pay tribute to the work being done by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment on adult education in the workplace. This year FÁS was allocated an additional €2 million to help to improve education within the workplace. A number of people now need language training following the arrival of people from other countries including many from the new member states that joined the European Community in 2004. Many of these people are working in local businesses and communities and are making a big contribution to the economy of the regions. Further investment is needed for language education. In recent weeks a tragedy occurred in my county where some people lost their lives, as they were not aware of the dangers of the places where they were enjoying their leisure activities, fishing at Kilkee or looking over the Cliffs of Moher. These are very dangerous locations and I was glad to see that The Clare People got a Polish woman, living in Kilrush, to insert a Polish translation warning people who are not familiar with the area of the risks and dangers involved in entering these scenic areas for their leisure activities. Local people would not be involved in such activities at this time of year. These are the kinds of issues that will be important in the future and the Minister of State has done valuable work in that area.

I compliment the Youthreach programme. The Minister of State indicated that it has more than 90 centres with in excess of 3,000 participants. Youthreach is very important and has been very successful in picking up on people leaving schools and colleges who wish to further their education and skills in various ways. I also compliment the vocational educational committees for the adult education initiatives the various committees have taken over many years. In developing new technology I am glad that various Departments are working with the Minister of State.

I support what Senator Coonan said about the farming community. Many young farmers no longer have sufficient income from small farms and we need to provide them with skills that are in short supply. Many young farmers, especially those from west Clare, are now combining work in the Moneypoint generating station with work on their small farms. A number of courses could be provided to train people in fitting, pipe welding and various technological areas. Many young farmers with qualifications from second level schools are interested in machinery and would find it easy to undertake courses to train them for jobs that are freely available in large construction sites and other areas where we have labour shortages.

We need to keep abreast of new technology, which changes on an almost daily basis. Once people used to pick blackberries from hedges on the side of the road. BlackBerrys are used now for other purposes. I use that as an example of the technological advances that have taken place. Many adults in particular learn about such technology from their children, even children in national schools. Industry in the future will rely on technological advances that take place at a very fast pace. The two challenges facing industry are keeping abreast of changes in technology and keeping the workforce trained to deal with those challenges in the future. The technological changes, the Youthreach programme, the work of the VECs and FÁS, and post-leaving certificate courses are important. We have all had occasion to visit colleges in our areas where an enormous amount of work has been done by the second level schools in the development of post-leaving certificate courses.

This may be one of the last opportunities I will have to put on record my appreciation of the work the Minister of State, Deputy de Valera, has done in my constituency since she was elected to the Parliament to represent Clare. I have known her since she was first elected to the Houses and I know the work she did in Europe. I appreciate the loyalty and support I have received from her in the constituency over the years. She has made a very valuable contribution not only to adult education, but also to the economic and social development of County Clare since she first came to the constituency.

As this is probably the final occasion on which the Minister of State will be in the House, I want to place on record the fact that I wish her well in her new challenges and I thank her for the work she has done since first being elected to represent County Clare.