Deputy Crowley has five minutes and the Minister has ten.
Adjournment Debate. - Bantry AnCo Training Centre.
I take this opportunity——
There is a time limit on this and Deputies should allow Deputy Crowley to speak.
I wish to thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me five minutes in which to speak although I feel I should have much longer because there was a deliberate filibuster carried out the last time. However, I appreciate getting extra time tonight. If there is to be backtracking on promises made to build an AnCO training centre in Bantry I will start a crusade——
Deputies
Hear, hear.
——Crowley's crusade, to make sure the people of Bantry are treated as they should be and not as clowns as the Taoiseach thinks they are. Places such as Bantry, by their geographical location, are cut off from a lot of important areas. Therefore, they are areas in which we must have a special interest. I should like the IDA, AnCO and other agencies to take West Cork and give it priority treatment and not treat it in the fashion in which it is at present which is one of disdain.
It is a pity the Deputy's Government did not think of that.
(Interruptions.)
Deputy Crowley without interruption, please.
The Taoiseach gave a solemn promise to the people of Bantry and welched on that promise. Today we had welching on another promise, but we will deal with that next week. In continuation of this crusade I want the Minister for Labour to send his officials and experts into West Cork to identify the needs of the people there especially the younger people, to see what kind of training they need and what skills they have because I know that while the Coalition are in Government a training centre will not be erected in Bantry.
That was a decision by the Deputy's Government.
The Deputy must be able to take his beating.
(Interruptions.)
I want a positive commitment from the Minister for Labour——
I got that last week.
Is the AnCo centre going to be there?
On a point of order——
(Interruptions.)
Deputy, you are disorderly in not allowing Deputy Crowley to speak.
Much as I would love to, I am afraid that I cannot yet address Deputy Sheehan as Minister for Labour but I hope that is in the future. We may have a word with the Taoiseach afterwards. I want to put it to the Minister for Labour that he must give priority to Bantry.
He has given it.
Has the Deputy got a dose of verbal diarrhoea and is he taking anything for it?
I have a good pair of ears and I listen dutifully.
I ask him also to ensure that the IDA work in close liaison with the officials of AnCO.
The Deputy must conclude now.
It was a deliberate attempt to try me.
You would like the Minister to reply.
Of course I would like him to reply, but I am talking about investment. A certain amount of investment is involved in erecting an AnCO centre but investment today means jobs tomorrow. We are asking the Minister and the Government to invest, not very heavily, in a remote area which deserves special treatment from the Government. I hope that as a result of raising this on the Adjournment and the consequent exposure of this very important question, the Minister will relent and change and, despite the pressures and constraints that may be put on him by the Minister for Finance, he will be man enough to fight and say that West Cork deserves special treatment and that we will erect an AnCO centre in Bantry and provide proper training and facilities for the people of West Cork. How long more have I, A Cheann Comhairle?
Your time was up two minutes ago.
In conclusion, I thank you for giving me the opportunity of putting this case. I warn the Minister that unless action is taken the crusade will continue from this side of the House.
The location of training centres is in the first place, a matter for the council of AnCO. The council is representative in the main of employer and trade union bodies and may be expected to reflect the needs of both worker and industry.
AnCO are financed through my Department's Vote and I have the task of convincing the Government and the Minister for Finance that they must provide adequately for AnCO's training activities including capital requirements. I must also satisfy them that AnCO moneys are spent to the best advantage.
AnCO have drawn up a capital development programme which, when completed in 1985, will have resulted in permanent centres being spread strategically throughout the country. The criteria for the establishing of a training centre are total population in each electoral area, population density around potential location and minimum size for the economic operation of a training centre.
AnCO are convinced that the training centre should have at least 200 places to enable it to provide a wide range of courses, allowing that each of those places would accommodate at least two trainees during any twelve-month period. Deputies will get some appreciation of the numbers needed to keep a centre operating to its maximum capacity.
That being so, is what Deputy Sheehan said untrue? Will an AnCO centre not be erected in Bantry?
On a point of order——
There is no point of order. The Minister is speaking.
Have some respect for the Minister.
I said a minute ago that the building programme up to 1985 was drawn up before I came into office and Bantry was not included in it.
Is the Minister going to include it?
Would the Deputy like to listen to the remainder of my reply?
The Taoiseach promised——
A mix of courses must be provided, otherwise the local labour market would soon have surpluses in a limited number of skills with little prospect of local employment. The aspirations of job seekers are provided for also in this way by giving them a reasonable range of courses from which to choose.
AnCO feel that the training needs of West Cork can best be met through the Cork City centres, through external training courses and the use of mobile training units. A mobile unit was located in Bantry for a period last year during which three courses were run. AnCO experienced some difficulty in recruiting sufficient numbers of adult trainees for these courses and in addition the placement rate was disappointing. On the other hand, the mobile unit which operated in Clonakilty up to very recently experienced more encouraging results. For the future AnCO propose to offer a wider choice of courses through their mobile centres and this may be more suited to Bantry needs. In addition to the mobile units AnCO are always ready to respond to the needs of local industry, both established and new, with special locally based courses. Such courses have been found to be very successful elsewhere. Unfortunately, AnCO have not received any requests for them in the Bantry areas so far.
AnCO's external training division ran a job seeking skills programme in Bantry in July last and this has been followed up by AnCO's Director of External Training meeting with the West Cork county development team on 24 November last when it was agreed to investigate what the external training division can do in the West Cork area generally. There are 19 people from West Cork in permanent AnCO training centres at present and an additional 20 are in training on community youth training projects in the following areas: Aughadown, Churchcross, Skibbereen, children's playground; Skibbereen, flatlets for the aged and community centre. Other projects completed in community youth training projects are: Sherkin Island, renovation of bird observatory; Ballymakeera, amenities complex; Sherkin Island Summer Camp; Bantry Blues GAA community centre and dressing room; Caheragh Community Hall and repairs to Skibbereen CYMS Hall. A new project, which will provide a workshop for the Bantry Mentally Handicapped Association, has not yet been started.
Deputy Sheehan pointed out that the Cork city centre did not appear to be facilitating young applicants from west Cork. I checked this matter with AnCO and I was assured that all applications for non-apprentice training are subject to the same selection criteria, that is, suitability for courses on offer or sought. However, as applicants are called in chronological order, some have to wait for a considerable time for training, especially for courses such as heavy goods vehicle driving or welding, which are in high demand. Travelling and accommodation allowances are payable to trainees who have to attend training away from home.
The Dáil adjourned at 9 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 3 December 1981.