Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael)

I support Senator Fitzgerald's call for a debate on the economy and on employment in general. The trends in recent live register figures are worrying. The Government was happy to use the housing boom to conceal our declining competitiveness in exports and manufacturing. Now thousands of young Irish construction workers, skilled in various trades, find it hard to get work. I call on the Acting Leader to invite the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Mary Coughlan, to come before the House to outline the Government's plans to re-skill and upskill these workers to help them face the new employment challenges. Senators should be allowed debate the roles of FÁS and various Government agencies in this issue. I formally second the proposed amendment to the Order of Business.

Much has been said about provisional licences and the testing taking place at the moment. When the Minister for Transport delayed the enforcement of legislation on provisional driving licences he set a target of ten weeks for the various licensing centres. I have a list of these centres before me and they all issue test notices in less than ten weeks. However, I have doubts about this. A couple of people contacted me about testing dates that were set. A young lady who works as a veterinary nurse twenty miles from the testing centre had a test set for this week, Thursday, 10 July. She holds a provisional licence, has done all her lessons and was ready to sit the test on Thursday. She received a call last week from a private number to inform her that her test had been cancelled. No reasons were given and she received a letter yesterday stating that she must wait a further six to eight weeks for her test. This is very unfair to people who have prepared for a test. I wonder whether the figures stating that the target of ten weeks is being met are credible. Are tests merely being arranged in a number crunching way to allow targets be met? This is how it seems to me. Cancellation of tests like this is unfair to young drivers and drivers on provisional licences who have prepared for the test. I ask the Acting Leader to request that the Minister for Transport investigate this and ensure adequate resources are allocated for the proper testing of provisional drivers.