The state training agency Fás is to introduce a number of new initiatives to assist unemployed construction workers, including helping them to find work abroad, the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Coughlan told the Dáil tonight.
Ms Coughlan said that the Government was putting a number of measures in place to ensure that those who become unemployed are provided with effective employment services and training supports to help them to return to employment.
In the first 8 months of this year over 23,500 people were made redundant, a 36 per cent increase on the same period in 2007 and Fás has warned that as many as 65,400 construction workers could lose their jobs by the end of 2009.
"We are all aware that there has been a significant downturn in construction related activity since the start of this year. In fact the construction sector is undergoing a major structural change at present. Resulting from this structural change there has been a significant increase in the numbers of people within the construction sector who have been made redundant and also a corresponding increase in the number of apprentices being made redundant," said Ms Coughlan.
"To respond to these challenges we have instructed Fás as the national training and employment authority to place a particular focus on providing support and retraining opportunities to construction workers and apprentices who have been made redundant," she added.
The Tánaiste said that Fás is to provide retraining opportunities for redundant construction workers in emerging areas within the construction sector. These include compliance and regulatory work, environmental activity and the installation of sustainable technologies.
Ms Coughlan said that Fás is working with local employment services provided by area-based partnerships, to gear up its services to provide increased capacity for expected increased referrals from the Live Register.
In addition, the Minister said that Fás would also support construction workers seeking new opportunities abroad.
"Fás will also assist individuals in any way they can in seeking employment abroad in construction in other EU countries," said Ms Coughlan.
Also speaking at the private members motion on unemployment this evening, the Labour Party's spokesman on Enterprise Trade and Employment, Willie Penrose said that there was a need to adopt a more pro-active training programme both for redundant workers and for new entrants to the labour force.
"Unless effective action is taken quickly we may soon have unemployment levels similar to the 1980s. In rural areas of my constituency most non agricultural employment is in the construction industry in which large numbers of jobs are being lost weekly," said Mr Penrose.
Separately, Sinn Feín's Economic spokesperson Arthur Morgan called on the Government to make job creation and enterprise the primary focus of the forthcoming Budget.
Speaking in the Dáil tonight the Louth TD said that much the focus in the lead-up to the Budget has centered on the need for cuts to public spending and a stimulus package for the property sector, rather than on job creation.
"Sinn Féin believes that the crucial area of job creation and enterprise has been overlooked as the main means of rebuilding our struggling economy. With unemployment at its highest levels in a decade and likely to increase next year, the Government's options for raising revenue will continue to be seriously curtailed unless a strategy can be put in placeto put more people in employment, thereby increasing direct revenue returns and lessening the drain on public resources through social welfare," he said.
