Mr. Paul O'Toole:

I will provide a brief opening statement regarding the work of FÁS during 2011 and since. The figures I will quote have all been rounded off.

Over this period, FÁS has concentrated on meeting its core objectives. These are to provide relevant training to our learners who are mainly unemployed persons; to provide employment support services to our clients, which responsibility ceased following the successful transfer of the FÁS employment services and community employment programmes, with their accompanying staff and other resources, to the Department of Social Protection at the end of 2011 - 772 staff members or 720 full-time equivalents were redeployed as part of this process; to continue the programme of improvements and reforms to our training products, quality control systems and governance systems; and following the decision of Government, to prepare for the winding down of FÁS, the establishment of SOLAS and the transfer of training centres, staff and other resources to the new education and training boards. This work was carried out in the context of ensuring prudent management of budget resources and meeting the obligations of the Employment Control Framework. Since the beginning of the moratorium, staff numbers - full-time equivalents - have been reduced from 2,271 to 1,068 today, a fall of over 1,200 or 53%. Over the period from 2009-12, the cost of operating FÁS has reduced by some €480 million in total compared to 2008 as a base year. This takes into account the transfer of resources to the Department of Social Protection.

Unemployment rates continue to be high with average unemployment over the period, ranging from 14.5% in January 2011, to 15% in January 2012 and to 13.7% currently. Yesterday, according to the live register report, it stood at 13.6%. FÁS responded by introducing a new training strategy in 2011 which seeks to optimise the use of its resources. This entails balancing the opportunities that employers are providing and the skills-sets they require, with the needs of persons who are more distant from the labour market and, therefore, require longer periods of support and progression. This has, for example, meant responding to the needs of the ICT industry for entry level and intermediate skills while providing digital literacy tuition for learners seeking to improve their competency. It has also meant a reduction in the volumes of construction related training which, in turn, has been reoriented to courses supporting green technologies and retro-fitting.

In 2011, 50% of the overall FÁS budget of €943.3 million, representing 64% of the programme budget, was used to provide income support to those accessing our programmes. Of the balance, 28% was spent on other programme costs, 15.4% was spent on pay and overheads and 6.6% on pensions. Some 163,000 interventions were provided across the range of programmes. I have similar figures available for 2012.

As referred to previously, with the expected passage of the legislation to establish a new further education and training authority, SOLAS will be established and FÁS will be wound down. This will bring to an end an organisation which has served Ireland for some 25 years. Despite the many challenges and serious issues which the organisation has faced, particularly in recent years, it has demonstrated a considerable commitment to supporting its learners and other clients. In so doing, the staff of FÁS have demonstrated considerable resolve, resilience and expertise in their work. No doubt this team of people, who will soon leave FÁS, will bring their commitment and expertise to bear in the new education and training boards and in SOLAS as they transfer in the near future.