David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State back to the house. He is taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of the Minister for Education and Skills. He will be aware of the cuts announced in the last budget in regard to teaching posts for colleges of further education. For the information of the Minister of State and to do justice to the people who sent me correspondence, I want to read into the record details of it. The first is a letter I received from Helen Finlay, the VTOS co-ordinator for the college of further education. She said that the college is facing a significant loss of teachers which will result in the removal of courses developed and provided in response to the needs of the community. She also said that the reduction of between 100 and 200 places on courses will mean the decimation of a service relied on by thousands of people in the south east, a region which already suffers from chronic unemployment and the loss of major employers over the last number of years.

I also received correspondence from the acting principal of the college, which states that the cuts to further education, as per 2012 December budget, will affect the 4.6 teacher allocation cut to the college, with the resulting loss of up to 120 college places to the region. Does that not make a mockery of what the Government is trying to do in terms of its jobs action plan and what the Ministers for Social Protection and Education and Skills are trying to do, in a co-ordinated way, to ensure we have proper labour activation measures, upskilling and retraining and the provision of opportunities for people to get back into the marketplace and workforce and receive the education they may need to be able to take advantage of the kinds of jobs the Government says it wants to create in terms of its jobs action plan? It is interesting that the areas and courses that will be affected most if these cuts go ahead are in the areas of tourism, business, child care, IT and beauty therapy.

If we take any one of those on its own, we can say the State has made significant tourism investment in Waterford in recent times. The Minister of State will be aware of the huge investment in the Viking Quarter in Waterford city. All that was welcomed. When courses are being provided to people to allow them to take these opportunities and for us to exploit the potential of the investment being made, it does not makes sense to cut back on these courses.

Why were these cuts announced and what is the logic behind them? How do they make sense in a region where unemployment is 25% above the national average? At a meeting with Oireachtas Members last week, the Waterford city manager confirmed that unemployment in Waterford city is over 20%. It is scary to think that is the unemployment figure in a city the size of Waterford. Why, then, are cuts like this being made to a college of further education that provides a service, not only to the people of Waterford but to the entire south east?

I am genuinely interested in the logic and rationale behind that decision and how the Minister of State and the Government feel it sits with the overall jobs action plan and the attempts the Minister of State says the Government is making to provide labour activation measures and opportunities for people to get back into the workforce.