Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

The Minister of State would like to be reassured through FÁS that this will never happen again. However, his acknowledgement that it has happened should convince him to take this opportunity to enshrine in legislation a provision to ensure it will not recur. This is a better approach than relying on the word of a State agency which did not cover itself in glory by including on its panel of assessors and trainers some who did not meet the required standards.

No significant changes in procedure have arisen as a consequence of the Spollen report. The same situation could recur, depending on the personnel in FÁS and the calibre of trainers and assessors who are appointed. It is down to these individuals whether another such issue can arise in the future. Nobody seems to have lost their job in the wake of this matter and there does not seem to have been any attempt to compensate those employees who paid money to trainers but did not receive any training. We hear nothing of these matters.

A whitewash has taken place and I am pressing this amendment on the basis that it represents a means of ensuring this will never happen again and that attempts will not even be made to bring about a similar situation. The only way to do this is by including a definition of "accredited trainers" in legislation and by imposing robust penalties on those who step out of line.

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