End overseas recruitment drive, Fine Gael urge

The Fine Gael party tonight called for an end to efforts to recruit workers from overseas.

They said the policy should be abandoned because of increased economic uncertainty generated in Ireland since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Enterprise and Employment spokesman Charles Flanagan declared that at a time of independent predictions that Ireland’s current unemployment rate of 3.7% would double over the next two years the Government’s FAS training agency should concentrate its resources on re-skilling people who were made redundant.

He added: ‘‘There never was much economic sense in FAS providing a recruitment service for overseas workers. FAS should stick to its proper role - training and employment services for Irish people.

‘‘It would be more appropriate that FAS devoted training resources to this source of labour supply, rather than grandiose overseas schemes.’’

The Dail turned its attention to foreign labour through FAS at the height of Ireland’s Celtic Tiger economic boom, when skill shortages were experienced in some sectors as the unemployed rate - once running at well over 10% - slumped towards its present level.

Mr Flanagan called on Tanaiste and Enterprise and Employment Minister Mary Harney to ‘‘take an immediate and close look at the policy priorities and budget of FAS, the national training agency’’.