Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)

What we are involved in is the most far-reaching and fundamental reform of the further education and training sector the country has seen. It is a gargantuan task in change management that requires the co-operation, willingness and enthusiasm of everybody involved in further education and training. As chairman of the implementation group since last July, these are forthcoming. We have representatives from the Irish Vocational Education Association, IVEA, at the table of the SOLAS implementation group. We also have representatives from FÁS. There is enthusiasm, energy, ambition and a willingness to provide the very best further education and training the country can provide and to put in place a system over which we can all stand and of which we can be proud.

It is far too early to say 200 staff from FÁS will be transferring to SOLAS. We will look at the resources available throughout the VEC sector and in FÁS and the constituent parts throughout the country to extract everything we need to put in place a world-class further education and training system. We do not want to be too dogmatic or in any way prescriptive at this time.

The implementation process is ongoing. I have asked for the opinions of more than 150 stakeholders on how we should make things happen. They have submitted written contributions and at the end of next month we will bring them all together under one roof for what I hope will be a lively half-day conversation on how we can make SOLAS happen. Any negativity or paranoia about the issues involved will be addressed in sitting down and speaking to one another and allowing everybody to understand that we are all setting out with the same ambition to achieve the same goal.

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