Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

I wish to make a number of points about this legislation, but principally I want to speak about what FÁS has become and the need for a decent training agency. I will spell out the kind of things that now need to happen in relation to FÁS. The numbers on the live register are approaching 500,000 and there is an urgent need for a properly functioning employment and training agency. It should be one that meets the needs of those who require training, upholds high standards, has a clear focus and is involved in providing support services throughout the regions. It should also ensure that people are sufficiently skilled and trained to avail of employment opportunities. Those requirements must be always uppermost in our minds when it comes to dealing with this legislation and in discussing the role of FÁS.

The difficulty, however, is that in its current shape FÁS is not fit for purpose. It is dogged by scandal, corruption, low standards and ineptitude, as well as a lack of corporate governance and accountability. All those elements make FÁS a dysfunctional organisation. There is no question but that, over the years, FÁS has been a sinecure of Fianna Fáil and there has been gross political interference in that organisation from top to bottom. That has been the dead hand on FÁS since it was established in 1987. People on the Government side of the House have a huge amount to answer for, given the state in which FÁS is now.

If we are frank in terms of how we should go about tackling these problems and putting in place the kind of root and branch reform required, there needs to be an acceptance of the nature of the problems that beset FÁS. In addition, there must be a recognition of the fact that the Minister with line responsibility for that agency is part and parcel of the problem. That is the reality. The Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Mary Coughlan, is part and parcel of the problem at FÁS. She follows a number of Ministers who have failed to live up to their responsibilities, including Deputies Micheál Martin and Mary Harney. Those Ministers failed to ensure a healthy relationship between the Department and FÁS, including proper standards and accountability, or that it was fit for purpose. The current Minister has carried on that. It fell to her to deal with the problems as they exploded over the past 18 months, but she utterly failed to do so. That is not only in respect of this legislation but also in respect of how she failed to respond to the challenges that arose for her, as line Minister, over the past 18 months. While recognising the need to move and discuss what is required of a training agency in future, we must also learn lessons about what has happened in the past.

The issues now emerging in FÁS first came to the fore in May 2008 when the Comptroller and Auditor General issued his special report No. 10. That report identified huge lapses in corporate governance and breaches of the normal procurement rules that should apply in a State organisation or any company. Unfortunately, the Tánaiste failed to respond to those issues. FÁS was a major agency with an annual budget of more than €1 billion, which was under her direct responsibility, yet she failed to take action on the major issues highlighted in last year's report. Instead, she sat on her hands and hoped that somebody else would deal with them. In fact, she looked to the Comptroller and Auditor General to do a further report. She sat waiting and hoped the Committee of Public Accounts might do something or that we might have another report. In the meantime, however, there was a urgent need for a proper training agency, yet she allowed that situation to drift. She allowed many of the unacceptable practices to continue in FÁS, thus permitting that organisation to be dragged further into the mire. In the process, she failed to take any responsibility for what was going on there and failed to take action to rectify it.

Media attention was focused on the first-class foreign travel and lavish expenses of FÁS executives, which were highlighted at the Committee of Public Accounts and in the Sunday Independent. It was only when the then director general of FÁS, Mr. Rody Molloy, had a disastrous radio interview with Pat Kenny that people realised the game was up and that Mr. Molloy had to be moved fast. There was a determination to silence him and, clearly, the objective was to get him off the pitch, close down the FÁS story and hope there would be no collateral damage to the organisation's political masters. That was the strategy, but in spite of what Ministers and Fianna Fáil backbenchers might think, one cannot take the law into one's own hands. Ministers are not above the law. There are laws, regulations and guidelines-----

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