This article is from page 10 of the 2006-09-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
THE chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise and Small Business Deputy, Donie Cassidy called for maths and science to receive double points in the leaving cert examination, when the group met in Ennis yesterday (Monday).
The Westmeath TD believes that students studying maths and science should receive double the number of points in their State exams.
He said it was necessary for students to be interested in the sciences, if they were to be attracted into high skilled enterprise to the country.
Clare Minister for Labour Affairs, Tony Killeen warned, “the country will have great difficulty holding on to low skilled jobs” in the future.
“We are going to have difficulty competing at low skill level because it can be done more cheaply elsewhere,” he added.
He said it was now vital that Ireland had a well-educated workforce.
“We will continue to attract investment provided we invest in training our workforce,” he said.
Meanwhile, the committee learnt that Clare women were doing it for themselves in the world of new enterprise.
CEO of the Clare Enterprise Board, Eamonn Kelly, told the gathered Oireachtas members that 46 per cent of all start ups in the county under the current National Development Plan were being under taken by women.
In the 12 years of the County Development Board, it has assisted 436 enterprises in the county, creating 1,317 jobs.
“Our capability development programme provided an extensive range of training, mentoring and consultancy services and the demand for these programmes truly reflects the value placed on them by the participants,” Mr Kelly told the committee.
Addressing the committee Minister Killeen said that 30,000 women have been enticed back into the workforce. He said the Government was committed to this.