Father Micheal MacGreil SJ, a delegate from Kildare Trades Council, condemned the decision to close the Army's apprenticeship school. He said blue-collar workers were becoming an endangered species.
"A third of the human brain is devoted to working with the hands and only 8 per cent to the sexual organs. But far more attention is devoted to that 8 per cent than the third used for manual work."
Rogue developers, builders, speculators and property-owners were cashing in on the "brown envelope" culture to make huge profits, Mr Des Bonass of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions said. Local authorities had handed over the problem of housing to the private sector and workers could no longer afford a home of their own.
He proposed a levy of 15 to 20 per cent on the value of housing developments to fund social housing. Alternatively a similar proportion of houses on an estate could be allocated to house those unable to afford their own homes.