John Gerard Hanafin (Fianna Fail)

Will the Leader arrange a debate on the economy with a particular emphasis on FÁS, not with reference to the difficulties in FÁS but rather the benefits of the community employment schemes and the need to extend them, and on the subject of training and retraining? I am conscious of the ESRI report published today which indicates that unemployment will reach 8% over the next few years. In that eventuality it would be important to place ourselves correctly for the future. It is interesting to note that even during the 1930s, there were growth areas in economies, in the new technologies of the time and in electronics. It is important that people who have been earning very good money in the construction sector in particular and who need to retrain would be given that opportunity. The House should debate this issue with an emphasis on what needs to happen for the future.

I agree with other speakers who are amazed at a person who can receive bonuses higher than the gross domestic product of some countries, sums of $500 million in bonuses, salaries and packages, in a year in which they have brought the world economy into recession. I am thinking in particular of the CEO of Lehman Brothers. There should be a clawback on people like that who have caused such misfortune for us by repackaging loans that were inherently unstable and without any responsibility for undertaking the management of those loans by selling them forward. It must be wrong for people to have received such sums. One wonders if that CEO had received the full $1,000 million would we now be heading into a depression.