Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 170: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the extent to which she will provide extra resources in the coming year for retraining and upskilling the workforce with particular reference to addressing the requirements arising from job losses over the past number of years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31052/08]

Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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Question 171: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if she is satisfied that all appropriate retraining opportunities are available for workers who lose their jobs, especially in the construction sector; if she has plans to provide additional training opportunities; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30918/08]

Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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Question 172: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the latest estimates available to her Department from FÁS regarding the potential number of job losses in the construction sector up to the end of 2009; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30919/08]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 170 to 172, inclusive, together.

Various labour market projections are available. For example, FÁS, in its latest Quarterly Labour Market Commentary, for Quarter 2 2008 has forecast that construction employment will fall by -6.9% (-19,000) this year and by a further -9.2% (-24,000) in 2009.

This estimated drop in construction employment of around 43,000 would bring it back to 2004 levels. The recent easing of employment growth generally and construction employment in particular comes after many years of extraordinary growth, which could not have lasted indefinitely. For example since 2004, total employment has grown by 273,900 with employment in the construction sector increasing by 50,300.

FÁS and the Department of Social and Family Affairs are working together so they can respond quickly to the increase in unemployment, for example:

FÁS and the Department of Social and Family Affairs have agreed that redundant workers will be referred immediately to FÁS rather than wait for three months on the Live Register as was the case before. FÁS has also established a training fund to enable a speedy response to identified re-training needs for low skilled and redundant craft workers.

FÁS is, with the Local Employment Services provided by Area-Based Partnerships, currently gearing up its Employment Services further to provide increased capacity for expected increased referrals from the Live Register.

FÁS will be providing a range of certified, short, flexible, modular programmes designed to upskill redundant workers so that they can enhance their prospect of securing employment. A number of programmes are already in place and the frequency and range of these will be expanded over the coming months.

A range of actions are being implemented by FÁS for those affected by the construction slowdown, including:

FÁS will focus on providing retraining opportunities for:

the installation of sustainable technologies

environmental activity

compliance and regulatory work

FÁS will also assist individuals in anyway they can in seeking employment abroad in construction in other EU countries. FÁS have held European construction jobs fairs for employers from other EU countries.

Discussions concerning the 2009 budget are still ongoing. The budget for FÁS is agreed on the basis of detailed discussions between FÁS, my Department and the Department of Finance in the context of the annual Estimates process and will be announced on Budget Day.