Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Deputy Gilmore has experience of the House. He has known formation of Governments in the past, even ones of which he was half part. The transfer of functions orders will be drawn up in due course, confirmed at Cabinet and put before the Houses of the Oireachtas or laid in the Library or wherever they are brought. In the meantime I want to see the practical arrangements put in place. We want to see better service provided in the training and skills area, where FÁS will liaise with what is being done in education. In the meantime corporate accountability remains with the existing Departments until the new arrangements are put in place. On a practical level we will get on with ensuring that the agency sits down with the Ministers concerned and that the practical arrangements for the interface between that wing of FÁS dealing with social welfare and the other wing of FÁS dealing with education will proceed and make the necessary arrangements to improve co-ordination in the first instance and work through the ultimate integration at a stage in the future which may require legislation. That does not stop the immediate point which is to get a better service for those who need it by ensuring that the various parts of the organisation deal properly with the new Department. The political decision has been made and we will now deal with it. There is no confusion. The existing arrangements remain in place while that process begins and once the transfer of functions orders are decided they will move to the other Departments.

The other matter raised is-----

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