Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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Question 4: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the current status of FÁS; if he will provide a timeline for the establishment of SOLAS; the progress made to date in establishing SOLAS; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26034/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I am responding to this question on behalf of my colleague, the Minister of State for Education and Skills, Deputy Ciarán Cannon. Following the Government decision to create SOLAS, an implementation Group was set up to establish it My colleague, Minister of State, Deputy Ciarán Cannon chairs this group, the membership of which includes representatives from the Department of Education and Skills, FÁS, the Irish Vocational Education Association, the Department of Social Protection, the Department of the Taoiseach and a representative of the private training sector. This is part of a wider reform programme that also includes the rationalisation of 33 VECS into 16 Education and Training Boards.

The heads of a Bill for the establishment of SOLAS have been approved by Government and were recently referred to the Office of the Attorney General for drafting purposes. The Bill will, inter alia, provide for the establishment of SOLAS and for the dissolution of FÁS. I expect to publish this legislation in the autumn session of this year. Pending completion of the legislative process, FÁS will continue to provide training programmes under the terms of its current mandate.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for his reply on this matter which we have discussed in this House and in committee on numerous occasions. The Minister stated that it is hoped discussion on the legislation will be completed in the autumn session. Is he reasonably confident that the new structures will be in place by the end of this calendar year? There is confusion among members of the public, who did not have the same opportunity as Members of this House to engage on these issue, in regard to whether FÁS still exists, if it is providing courses and whether SOLAS has been established. There is concern around the provision of new courses by FÁS and the abandonment by it of courses which are no longer to current labour market needs. Perhaps the Minister will provide an assurance that he will try to allay the concerns about the creation of a lacuna in terms of the abolition of FÁS and the establishment of the new structure. We all dread uncertainty in regard to the delivery of a public service. This does nothing for the morale of the people working in the system, be it in FÁS or the VECs, which play an integral role in the area of further education and training.

Perhaps the Minister will also outline if the role of SOLAS will be around the development of courses rather than the provision of services to customers.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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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.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister and advise him to stick to the ambitious target. When targets are missed they will continue to be missed and the people who will suffer will be the potential customer or client of FÁS who needs that particular support. There is a need for root and branch review of courses that have been provided and we cannot wait for months for that to happen. I do not know if FÁS is doing that necessary review at present. There are skills shortages in this country and there are so many highly qualified and talented people who have to leave our island to seek work elsewhere. There must be a marrying of the needs of the labour market and the talent and ability of our own people to ensure they are reskilled or upskilled to avail of those potential job opportunities.

It is grand for the public service, in general. This is not a criticism of any Department but of the public service, no matter who is in power, which does not react rapidly enough. The people who will be suffering will be those who need the courses. I wonder if the new Solas body is to be similar to the HEA; we discussed one issue previously in this regard. There is unnecessary duplication of courses in our higher education sector and I hope that can be eliminated in future. Solas will need to ensure there is no such unnecessary duplication throughout our new education and training bodies throughout the country and that the needs of the customers and our people are met.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I share the concerns the Deputy expressed and agree with him. The kind of work FÁS did in the 1980s and 1990s is no longer appropriate to the needs of the labour market. The announcement I made on Monday of 6,000 new places for Springboard is much closer to what people actually want because the skills level of the labour market has been improved and the demand from industry for the jobs for which there currently are vacancies is in the high-tech space and in other areas. This was not really the traditional remit of FÁS, which was dominated by the construction sector. We will be changing the traditional pattern of delivery but there will be no gap or lacuna between moving from what FÁS is currently doing to what needs to be done by Solas and the 16 delivery agencies under the local education and training boards.