Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

The announcement regarding the closure of the FÁS centre in Cabra is very serious. Participants have received letters to the effect that their courses are likely to cease midway through, sometime before the end of December. This FÁS centre provided a service for those in Dublin 1, Dublin 3, Dublin 7, Dublin 15 and all the way out to Blanchardstown and beyond. Now, there is no FÁS service in Blanchardstown and extending all the way to Meath. More than 250,000 people live in this area and they are being deprived of all FÁS training services. The centre in Jervis Street, in the heart of the city, was closed down last year.

When there are approximately 440,000 people unemployed, some 100,000 people leaving the country and the unemployment level is 13.6%, should we be closing down a FÁS centre? There are reasons for its closure; the roof is in bad repair and the building is structurally unsound. However, there has been no word on an alternative centre. The centre has been run down gradually. ICT programmes are no longer run in the centre. Up to two years ago some 71 staff worked there but now there are only 42 staff working there. Basic computer and technology training is no longer being provided there. Classrooms and training rooms are vacant in the centre. It has been run down over a period and now it is being closed down. The existing staff will be redeployed elsewhere, including to Ballyfermot and Baldoyle, but this is simply not good enough. There will be no training facilities in the heart of the city since the centres in Cabra and Jervis Street have closed down. People have travelled and commuted a great distance from the greater Dublin area and beyond to come to these facilities.

Class participants have received letters, including the letter I have before me, which was received by a constituent of mine. This letter informs her that the centre is to close in early December and her six-month training course will finish on 24 December. What is she supposed to do? Only one month remains on her course but she has simply been informed that the centre will be gone at that stage. Will she received a certificate? How will this process be managed? Have alternative arrangements being made? It is somewhat rich at this time of the year as we approach Christmas that people in the middle of courses are treated in this way.

We are in the middle of the greatest recession the country has ever experienced but we are seeing the closure of a service which is essential to keep people going, to provide them with training and some hope for the future. Instead, we have a decision by the Government to the effect that since the roof has become too bad, now is the time to close the centre but this is being done without providing alternative arrangements for the participants.

I realise the staff will be taken care of to some extent in the sense that they will be redeployed elsewhere. The centre has been run down and almost 50% of the staff have moved already. The situation is serious. I realise a colleague of the Minister, Tommy Simpson, works there. He has done fantastic work in this area and I realise the Minister appreciates the work he has done. All the staff there are concerned not only for their futures, but that FÁS services are effectively being run down and closed at a time when they are most needed.

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