Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 93: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the details of the scheme to retrain workers in certain employment sectors; the person who will administer the fund; the timeframe involved; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27093/09]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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It is crucial that with the increasing numbers of people who are now unemployed that we seek to further enhance the activation and training opportunities to assist these individuals. It is vital that we ensure jobseeker's are supported, and have access to appropriate and relevant guidance, education and training services.

Specifically in relation to responding to the significant numbers of people who have been made redundant from the construction sector, the Government is committed to providing assistance to these workers. We will achieve this through increasing their skills levels and, in some cases, helping them develop new skills sets that will allow them take advantage of opportunities in new emerging growth areas within the construction sector. These include the installation of energy efficient and renewable technologies, together with compliance and energy rating work.

At present FÁS offer courses in Gas Safety and Gas Installation; Sustainable Energy equipment installation; Building Energy Ratings; Smart/Intelligent Buildings design; Insulation Technologies and Techniques, with a total of over 3,000 training places available in these disciplines.

Plans are well advanced for the provision of additional courses that are due to come on stream later this year: Micro-Electricity Generation Wind Turbine and Photovoltaic Courses and Passive House Building.

In addition to these type of courses unemployed individuals from the construction sector can access the other FÁS training courses, in order to develop new skills. Since the end of last year this Government has almost doubled the number of my Department's activation training and work experience places to 129,000 from the 66,000 that were provided last year.

The majority of these additional places, 92,000 are being provided under FÁS Training Initiatives Strategy and are short courses in specific skills training. These courses are designed to develop new skills and competencies for the unemployed to assist them in securing employment. FÁS are providing such courses for a broad range of different sectors including the retail, IT, construction, manufacturing and services sectors.

These training courses represent a substantive commitment on the part of this Government to assist those affected by the current downturn in the construction sector.