Michael Comiskey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join colleagues in welcoming the good news on the jobs front. More can and will be done as we enter spring. This will be a better year on the jobs front. In recent years, a number of local authority staff have retired and not been replaced. This is an opportunity for schemes similar to those run previously, for example, FÁS-type schemes. As my colleague, Senator Mooney, mentioned, most of the people in question are unskilled.

It would be a great opportunity for councils to take on more staff through a scheme like that. Work needs to be done and there is much of it out there.

We have all been contacted by Love Leitrim, a group coming to Dublin today which is concerned about fracking. I assure the group and everybody else, as I have been assured, that no fracking will take place until the Environmental Protection Agency report is published and the practice is found to be safe. Nobody wants to see damage done and I assure everybody that fracking will not happen until it is found to be absolutely safe; if it is not safe, it will not be used.