Senator Gerard P. Craughwell - speech from 24 Sep 2019

I have to say I totally agree with Senator Higgins on this. I taught in further education for the best part of 25 years and for those who find themselves in a position where they're out of work for whatever reason and they're trying to plan their future or trying to plan a way ahead, sometimes they feel pressurised into making decisions. that ordinarily they wouldn't make. I think I'm inclined to agree that the mere fact somebody attended should be enough. Trying to force them to accept a particular plan at that meeting I think that's an unfair call. I think that at the very least they need time to go away and think about it but very often again it's my experience I know in Dun Laoghaire we were very lucky with the adult guidance service we had and they were very good at fitting people into fitting people into the niche that suited them best but that wasn't true of all the services and sometimes we had people who came on a course lasted five or six weeks and found it just wasn't for them. And from that perspective I think that I found myself unemployed in my 30s and trying to find a way around the problems that you encounter at that stage you have enough trouble just trying to cope with what has happened to you besides being forced into signing off on something you're really not comfortable with. So I would be supporting Senator Higgins on this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Senator.