John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

The proposal was put forward by the late Rory Murphy. We all supported it and met with the then Minister, Deputy Quinn, and the first community employment schemes in Ireland were probably born in County Wexford. We have a close affinity with such schemes and we have benefited greatly in the county from schemes down through the years.

The schemes have been welcome and worthwhile, particularly in rural Ireland, and I would like to see the Minister involved in making more money available to allow more people to go on them. I wonder why people who may be 60, 61 or 62 on a community employment scheme may be asked to leave and go back on social welfare because they have been in the scheme for a number of years. There is a need for the Ministers for Social and Family Affairs, Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Education and Science to bring about far better co-operation between Departments to ensure that people who want to avail of an up-skilling scheme or want to be involved in retraining or in a back-to-education scheme would be allowed do so without all the bureaucratic nonsense we encounter on a daily basis in the political structures of this country.

It would be far better for people to get an allowance to help themselves secure a job rather than just drawing social welfare and sitting around at home all day. Many people do not want to do this and would prefer to avail of schemes, retrain, up-skill and be involved in work. I welcome the Minister's commitment to that and in the new programme for Government there is much stated about retraining, up-skilling and ensuring people have an opportunity to be involved.

The live register has 423,000 people on it and tells its own story about the need for a very co-ordinated FÁS approach. It is not good enough that the board of FÁS, which operated in a way none of us would deem acceptable, should tarnish the name of and great work done by that organisation. The figures for 2008 show that approximately 26,000 apprentices were trained to meet future craft skill needs, 32,000 employees were upskilled in priority skill areas, under training for the unemployed, 7,900 people received specific skills training and 24,000 people were on community employment or job initiative programme schemes. It is obvious that, at the coalface, FÁS is doing a great job. However, the Tánaiste must take action to deal with those at a higher level and I welcome the fact that she is doing so.

The Tánaiste must also give serious consideration to reviewing how the more than adequate funding made available to FÁS is spent. Is that money being spent on the right people and in the right way? Like many others, I support communities that want to put in place community employment schemes, training schemes or back to work schemes. However, it is sometimes difficult to obtain a response regarding such schemes from within the larger FÁS organisation. When a response is received, it is usually to the effect that money is scarce or that a new scheme cannot be brought on stream because FÁS is fully committed to those that are already in train. The Tánaiste should examine the possibility of redirecting funds to the areas where they are needed.

A huge number of young people left school at an early age as a result of the boom in the building industry. These individuals earned big money as labourers and as trainee carpenters, electricians, etc., but since the collapse of the building industry, many of them have lost their jobs. These young people want to access schemes in order that they might upskill or retrain. Some of them also want to return to VTOS or the education system in general. I am of the view that here should be a number of schemes which would come completely under the remit of the Departments of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Education and Science and Social and Family Affairs. If such schemes were established, people could gain access to them quickly instead of being obliged to wait around for someone to make a decision.

The officials who work in the FÁS offices in Wexford, New Ross, Enniscorthy and Gorey know how the system works and are in a position to inform people about that to which they will be entitled when they are on schemes. These officials, and their counterparts throughout the country, should be consulted in order that we might discover what is in people's best interests. Those who have been employed in FÁS offices for many years and who have vast experience in dealing with people are never asked for their views. These individuals are never asked about the changes that could be made or what type of new schemes could be introduced in order that the unemployed might benefit from them. That is completely wrong. There should be a system in place under which those to whom I refer would be consulted on a regular basis by their regional or general managers and given the opportunity to have a say with regard to what is best for the unemployed in a particular county.

I ask the Minister to reflect on the different types of schemes that are in place at present in order to discover whether they are relevant to the huge numbers of people who are unemployed and identify any changes that might be brought about. I also ask her to reflect on the make-up of the board in order to ensure that those who serve on it act in the best interests of taxpayers and the unemployed. I met a number of highly qualified individuals in recent times who informed me that they would be prepared to serve on the board of FÁS and that they would not expect to be remunerated for so doing. Those to whom I refer are either retired or semi-retired and have plenty of time on their hands. The Tánaiste should consider appointing such people to the board.

I again welcome the Bill. It is 22 years since the legislation to establish FÁS was introduced. In that context, it is timely that we are reconsidering the position and reflecting on what we intend to do in the future in respect of this organisation.

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