Labhrás Ó Murchú (Fianna Fail)

I echo the sentiments of Senator Fitzgerald with regard to focusing on the requirement for training for those who have lost employment, and not merely those who have recently done so. In the future people will wish to diversify. Senator Fitzgerald is right. Out of the debate we had on the legislation, in particular the impressive discussions here, it is clear that a sense of urgency has taken hold of all of us now. We must all make a positive contribution.

In recent times the distracting and somewhat contrived controversy regarding FÁS was not helpful. That was not the FÁS I knew nor was it the FÁS that many people throughout Ireland knew. I have always found the organisation to be particularly responsive whenever fire brigade action was required. It was always pragmatic and there was none of the usual bureaucracy that sometimes goes with big bodies. It identified what was needed in any given community at a particular time. If there is a need for an examination of structures, management or otherwise, so be it. We live in changing times. I am confident that, ultimately, the bottom line will be that FÁS has served the nation well and that it has given us precisely the type of action we needed at any given time.

I know of situations where the placement rate in jobs was as high as 90% or 95% coming from some of the training schemes. I speak mostly from a background and experience of rural Ireland. As one commentator colourfully put it on one occasion, if anything happened to FÁS one could virtually close down rural Ireland. The organisation has not always had a fanfare of trumpets for the work it has done. This went to the very roots of community and there is not a single community in rural Ireland that has not benefitted in the past from FÁS.

I agree with the speakers who said it is time to have a comprehensive debate in the House on training and employment. If we are to do that, however, let us look at the track record of FÁS and let us not be distracted by what I consider some very contrived controversies. Above all, let us maintain the morale which has been in the organisation up to now. If we do not do so are we going to create new structures? Do we realise the cost of re-inventing the wheel?

It is now time to recognise what FÁS has done, its success and the value for money it has given. One can talk to hundreds of thousands of people who have benefited from its training and who were taken from their homes and given a sense of pride and worth. Were we to begin to undermine or distract from that in any way, we would not be responding positively to the present downturn in the economy.