Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

I join other Senators in calling for a debate on jobs and unemployment. There is a need for the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to come to the House so we can ascertain what plan, if any, she has in place to tackle unemployment. She has presided over a situation where there are 437,000 people unemployed. According to FÁS, a further 87,000 people will become unemployed this year. She is clearly not up to the job and should go at this stage. There is also a need for a complete overhaul of the operations of FÁS and of the Department of Social and Family Affairs to retrain and re-skill the unemployed adequately and to provide stronger incentives to the unemployed to retrain and re-enter the jobs market. These are the subjects we should be discussing in this House, not Greece or other simple problems that exist. We must discuss our people, jobs, the fact that 437,000 are unemployed and how we can tackle and overcome that problem. We should discuss this subject day after day and not have to ask for debates on the issue week after week and receive no response from the other side. This House will become irrelevant if we do not discuss the problems of the day. I ask the Leader to invite the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to the House to debate these issues with us in an effort to try to resolve them.