Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I reiterate that the Department is treating this matter with extreme urgency. I am an advocate of the motto "small is beautiful" in respect of implementation and committees. I made a presentation to the IVEA conference outlining what SOLAS sets out to achieve and two weeks ago I had a meeting with the board of FÁS at which I also set out what we hope to achieve through SOLAS. I am anxious to be as inclusive as possible and will seek and act on submissions from all interest groups and everybody who will be part of this serious change management process.

The target of the end of 2012 is a tough one. From previous Cabinet experience, the Deputy will be aware of the torturous and lengthy legislative process involved in getting such a change management process through the Houses of the Oireachtas. That will be the slowest part of the process but we will not sit back and wait for it to conclude. In parallel with the legislative programme, we will set in train a serious change management programme, primarily between FÁS and the vocational education committees. We hope to select one reasonably typical VEC and establish a pilot programme to determine how the machinery and architecture of FÁS and the VECs will come together on a practical, day-to-day basis to make the roll-out of SOLAS as streamlined and smooth as possible.

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