John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Fianna Fáil supports the Further Education and Training Bill 2013 that will formally change the name of FÁS to SOLAS. We welcome the extended role it will play in providing for oversight of and direction for the further education and training sector. We are all familiar with FÁS from its offices in our constituencies. Despite the justified criticism of the agency at its top level, I always found local FÁS offices, particularly in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, provided excellent services and were supportive in meeting the needs of the unemployed. They were also supportive of business and people with ideas on how courses should be set up and run. I hope many of the agency's workers who have expertise in these areas will transfer to SOLAS and keep on providing valuable knowledge on how courses should be provided in the future.

It is important to recognise that courses which may have been relevant in the past are no longer relevant for job opportunities at present.

I note that the SOLAS board will consist of 11 members with relevant expertise to be appointed by the Minister for Education and Skills after consultation with the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and the Minister for Social Protection. Will the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, explain what kind of people will be involved and how the Minister proposes to select people for the board? Will those appointed be ministerial supporters or people from IBEC and successful industries with a wide variety of experience? Will they simply be political appointees? It is important that the board has the relevant expertise required to drive SOLAS in future.

The model is right but the implementation of the model concerns me. Will the Minister of State outline when the education and training boards, ETBs, will be set up? How many, if any, have been set up to date? If none, how will all of them be set up by the end of 2014? Are we waiting until after the 2014 local elections to see the make up of the new ETBs? I cannot see how all the ETBs will be set up by the end of 2014. There should be an urgency about this matter. Will the Minister of State outline what dialogue has taken place between the VECs and the Department in recent months and what will take place in the coming months? The boards of County Wexford and City of Waterford VECs are to amalgamate. I understand one meeting was held last week among representatives and members of the two boards. However, there has been little urgency about the amalgamation of the two and I imagine the position is the same in the other counties.

There will be 16 ETBs with 16 chief executives. This morning I calculated that there are eight counties in the south east and south Leinster, including Waterford and Wexford. There will be five chief executives running that area. One wonders whether we need 16 chief executives. Do we need five chief executives in the south east to run the SOLAS campaign? The Acting Chairman will be aware that some multinational companies employ 40,000 people but have only one chief executive. Is it the case that much of the money will be gobbled up by the chief executives and their entourages and staff rather than providing for people who need services, training and re-skilling?

Are the VECs resisting or embracing the changes the Minister envisages with the amalgamations? Another issue is that FÁS operated all year round and the staff were available at different times of the day. Often up to now FÁS staff have been available at night time. Will the new boards and ETBs be flexible or will they be like VECs at the moment, which close down at 4.30 p.m. or 5 p.m. in the evening until 9.30 a.m. the following morning? These areas need to be teased out by the Minister. There should be flexibility and people should be available to run courses, advise on courses and meet communities and business people who may wish to set up courses. Trainers should be available at night time because often business people and others may not be available during the day. We need flexibility in the system.

What opportunities will be available? While FÁS did a very good job with the courses that were relevant ten or 15 years ago, especially in my county, where the building industry was a hive of activity, this is no longer the case. Vast numbers of people are unemployed now who once worked in the building industry and who had left school at a young age because the money was good. Such people find now that they have a lack of education and skills and it is important that under the new set-up SOLAS recognises this and encourages people to get back to education. The new agency should consider providing courses for job opportunities that are likely to be available.

Job opportunities in my area are likely to be in the fishing and farming industries, wind energy, which is on the move, information technology and tourism. Recently I learned that people who worked in wind energy area had to be sent to England to be trained for work permits and relevant skills to allow them work with wind turbines that have been erected. These people were not allowed to work in the area unless they held something like the FÁS safe pass qualification, but they had to go to England to get the qualification and that should not be happening. These areas should be examined. We should consider such areas in consultation with the providers and design courses that are relevant to industries in a given area.

Some Deputies have referred to the agricultural colleges. There are excellent agricultural colleges throughout the country include one in Pilltown, Kilkenny and others in Cork and other parts of the country. However, we should bring the agricultural courses to the students. I hope the new ETBs will provide agricultural courses in County Wexford or County Kilkenny or wherever. Students should not have to leave their county and go to Cork or other areas. The agricultural courses required to enable farmers to farm and draw down grants should be provided in the schools or colleges under the ETBs. This matter should be examined as well.

Post leaving certificate, PLC, courses have been particularly successful. Enniscorthy Vocational College is the centre of excellence for PLC courses in Wexford. Last year there were 450 applications but only funding for 300. This meant 150 people could not get on a PLC course. Those refused a place went back on jobseeker's allowance and were getting €100 per week or €5,000 per year for doing nothing. Rather than being paid €5,000 per year for sitting at home, there should be a system whereby we can increase the number of PLC courses at that school. I imagine other schools throughout the country are in the same position. These schools have the facilities to provide the PLC courses. Obviously, they would need extra teachers, but would it not be better to pay extra teachers to provide courses rather than pay €5,000 to students to sit at home? These students want further education and want to better themselves. Like many of the people I referred to earlier, they were in the building industry and left school at 16 or 17 years of age. They are seeking re-education and to re-enter the education system now.

I wish to make one final point and I will finish on this note.

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