Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

I will respond first to the Deputy's final question because it is the most pertinent. We have, and have had for years, an unstructured, informal and badly co-ordinated further education structure in this country, in respect of which no one in particular is to blame. The system has gone topsy over decades. SOLAS will be to the further education sector what the HEA is the higher education sector. It will establish guidelines, determine policy and seek co-ordination but it will not be on the front line in terms of providing services. Services, such as training programmes which will be close to labour market demands and needs and to meeting the requirements of people who become unemployed and need to upskill and retrain will be provided by the local education and training boards who will take over responsibility for the existing FÁS training centres. I hope that system will be up and running by the end of this calendar year.

I am concerned about the timetable in regard to the establishment of SOLAS and the progress being made in this regard. The process is slower than I would like. I am trying to accelerate it and in that regard I am looking for support within the system in terms of drafting of the legislation. There will be no ambiguity or lacuna in relation to the delivery of services. The local education and training boards have been established. They are the amalgamation of existing VECs with which Deputies are familiar. The remit of SOLAS will be clearly identified during the remainder of this year. It is hoped the legislation will be enacted to allow SOLAS commence operation from 1 January 2013. That is the target, which is highly ambitious. I am told it is overly ambitious but if we set an ambitious target we can work hard to achieve it.

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