Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

My concern is that there is not any sense of urgency to deal with the issues that have arisen in FÁS. The scandal that came to light in FÁS occurred almost a year ago. We have since had a report published by the Committee of Public Accounts, while the Comptroller and Auditor General is compiling his report now.

Much good work is done in FÁS, but it is also an agency with a budget of more than €1 billion. Much of the work done by that agency is no longer fit for purpose. The Minister of State was with me on "Prime Time" last night, and he heard the stories of the new unemployed, people with skills but for whom FÁS has very little. There is a great opportunity to re-found the agency to make it more relevant to the times in which we live. We can also make it accountable and implement some of the changes in the report of the Committee of Public Accounts. I do not understand why there is no sense of urgency from the Government on this.

Can the Minister of State at least give us a timeframe? Will we have to wait until the recession is over before these measures are implemented? The Government has claimed it is dealing with the structural deficit in the budget and that the Fianna Fáil deficit will be cleared in five years.

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