Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I readily accept that FÁS does not fall under the remit of the Minister. Although some of the courses it provides are excellent, others require a significant overhaul to make them interesting and relevant again. A new departure is required, because a relevant person may be required to participate in one of these courses.

Last week, a constituent informed me he applied to do a FÁS course. He was accepted, but one week later FÁS wrote to this person informing him that, unfortunately, there were not enough participants to run the course as 20 people was the minimum requirement. I sympathise in principle with efforts to encourage and incentivise people in training and up-skilling. Let us suppose that a person is required to attend such a course and that there are 19 others willing and pleased to participate in the course, have an interest in it and wish to get through it and become up-skilled. Let us further suppose one person is required to attend and that person decides to be a disruptive element because he or she has no wish to attend. Such a person may decide to exercise disruptive skills which makes the course irrelevant for everyone and no one gains in such circumstances. Does the Minister see this as a prospect or a possibility? Will there be an ongoing assessment of those participating in such courses if they are required to attend rather than volunteer for a given course? Such people could perhaps be shed of the responsibility of completing the course if it is demonstrable that for whatever reason the course is not suitable for such a person.

I refer to the wording of this section wherein some officers may decide that somebody is hanging about on job-seeker's allowance and while they may be looking for employment, it may be decided the person is not interested enough and needs a push to be upskilled. If this is a person who is not particularly interested in being upskilled, then not only will he or she do themselves no good, they will disrupt others. I wonder if consideration has been given to that prospect and if so, how might the Minister or one of her officers deal with it.

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