James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In 2008 we saw how the management of FÁS had allowed its budgets to spiral out of control to the tune of well over €1 billion. What progress is being made in integrating that body's successor, SOLAS, with the new education and training boards that have been established throughout the country? How do we ensure the public can have confidence in this new entity after what happened with FÁS?

There was reference on the news this morning to the problems associated with the JobBridge scheme, including the incidence of school management availing of interns to clean schools and so on. All JobBridge placements are supposed to involve a training element, but there cannot be a great deal of training for these interns, given that cleaning is not a highly skilled profession.