Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

In respect of the State agency side of the equation, State agency moves in total account for 20% of the total programme. So one fifth of the programme is in the State agency sector. There have been specific industrial relations difficulties in respect of the State agency sector as a result of the case brought by FÁS and the unions in respect of a FÁS directive, which was decided upon by the Labour Court. The union representatives decided not to engage until clarification was brought as a result of the FÁS case. That has been clarified by the Labour Court, which indicated in its recommendation that it is a voluntary programme and that the agencies should engage for the purposes of scoping the extent to which a process can be undertaken which will enable those who wish to move to do so if that is possible.

At the end of the day, it is the actual non-engagement because of the industrial relations issue in the background that is depriving us of coming to an assessment more quickly than would otherwise be the case regarding that matter. I want to put it in perspective. It is 20% of the programme. It is a significant part of the programme but it is not all of it. The FÁS situation in Birr is far better than Deputy Kenny suggests. I invite him to call there some time when he will discover there are far more than three people working in FÁS here. The suggestion was made that there were three people working in FÁS in Birr.

See this speech in context