Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Question 27: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills the effort being made to ensure that persons are trained and skilled for the jobs available; if her attention has been drawn to the fact that in the meat industry qualified boners still have to be brought in from abroad in spite of the fact that there are 450,000 unemployed persons here; if her further attention has been drawn to the fact that the same situation exists whereby persons are not trained for the skills and needs of the manufacturing industry when again personnel have to be brought in from abroad to fill the vacancies; if she will ensure that either colleges or FÁS provide the necessary training for these vacancies; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23645/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN) advises the Government on current and future skills needs and on other labour market issues that impact on Ireland's enterprise and employment growth. The Group brings together industry, academia and State agencies in identifying the overall skills requirements in the economy. My Department and its education and training agencies are represented on the Group and the Group's research and reports provide a valuable input to the development and amendment of course curricula.

The EGFSN annually produces the National Skills Bulletin, which identifies skills shortages in the economy each year. Given the sharp rise in unemployment, there is an excess supply of labour in Ireland at present. As a result, no significant labour shortages have been identified in 2010. However, the incidence of skills shortages is very low. These relate to a small number of posts and are confined to specialists within an occupation (e.g. electrical engineers with an expertise in high voltage grids), senior positions (e.g. senior software developer), niche areas (e.g. telesales with Nordic languages) and a specific skill mix (e.g. ICT and business).

Current Government policy is not to issue new employment permits to persons from outside the State where the salary is less than €30,000. This includes those employed in the meat industry sector. New permit applications are only issued on an exceptional basis where employers have been unsuccessful in their genuine efforts to recruit suitable candidates from within the labour force of the European Economic Area. That is why only 12 new permits have been issued this year for butchers and boners compared with the 297 that were issued in 2008.

The State's education and training providers routinely engage with industry in the design and development of new courses to ensure that they are a wide range of courses relevant to the skill needs of enterprises including those in the manufacturing and meat processing sectors.

For instance, FÁS has developed a number of training and assessment programmes such as beef abattoir worker, pig meat abattoir worker and pig/meat deboner. FÁS has also developed in conjunction with legislative bodies and industry stakeholders, a new Irish standard for Animal Welfare in Meat Processing that is recognised by An Bord Bia and is essential for all plants handling live animals.

My Department is also providing grant aid support this year of €112,000 to the craft-butchering sector through the current Skillnets Training Networks Programme. This is the continuation of a long-standing supportive relationship to develop and upskill those employed in the sector.

In terms of education both the Higher and Further education sectors are providing participants with specific skills to enhance their prospects of securing lasting, full-time employment, or progression to other studies. Examples of such programmes include the plc programme, VTOS, Youthreach and third and fourth level provision delivered through the Institutes of Technology and the Universities.

In addition, 1,800 unemployed people were supported to embark on part-time undergraduate and postgraduate programmes from September 2009 in areas that support the goals of the 'Smart Economy' and identified by the EGFSN as being relevant to the skills needs of the manufacturing and internationally traded services sector. A preliminary analysis by the HEA of information received to date from participating institutions shows that some 50% of participants were previously employed in the engineering, manufacturing or construction sectors. 55% of participants indicated that their motivation for undertaking the programme was to enhance their career prospects.