Alan Kelly (Labour)

My colleague, Senator Alex White, referred to the fact that on budget day we want to hear from the Government some initiatives on job creation. Has the Government some initiatives to deal with the issue of what we will do with our graduates, which is becoming a significant problem. There simply are not placements or job opportunities for many of them. Their options are limited. I would like to see some form of innovation from the Government so that we do not end up in a situation where these graduates do not get to practice what they spent years learning.

I visited Cork Institute of Technology in recent days. It provides a course in renewable energy which the Green Party, if its Senators were present, may have much interest. There are 35 or 36 students enrolled in it, only three of whom can find placement. How will they progress? There are all these initiatives on new forms of energy of which Senator O'Toole spoke. How can they progress when these companies are not even taking these students on, where there are no opportunities for them and none of them can find work?

I have encountered also a number of people working in information technology across a number of colleges who want to start businesses. Fair play to them. However, they cannot afford to do so in large urban areas because the start-up costs are so high. Many of them are from rural areas. We are all in favour of spatial planning and think it would be great to have companies in rural areas. However, especially with the new plans of the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Ryan, the only broadband capability with which they will be able to work will be social broadband. It will be broadband for Facebook and Bebo. It will not be broadband for starting companies because it will not be large enough, stable enough and substantial enough for them. I hope those are two areas the Government will address. If we are to get out of the quagmire we are in, these will have to be addressed.

Unfortunately, I must inform the House that from Monday next Nenagh and Ennis hospitals will lose their 24-hour accident and emergency services unless something changes in the near future. This is a disgrace. At this late date, I call on the Government to consider seriously reversing its policies on small, regional acute hospitals. It is a disgraceful strategy which is driven by consultants who are very well paid. It is orientated more around them than around patients. The money is not available to deliver on these strategies and I remind the Leader that numerous Ministers stated these strategies would not be put in place and these hospitals would not lose their services until the new buildings and facilities and all the new infrastructure was in place.