Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State. I welcome the introduction of the Bill which attempts to deal with the fallout from the FÁS debacle. It would be unfair not to acknowledge that FÁS has had significant successes down through the years as the Minister of State recognised in his speech. The majority of people working in FÁS were not engaged in the high flying junketeering we read about so shockingly in recent times. In the main they are decent, honourable people who, I find, are always willing to help. They were far removed from all of this and most of them are shocked and ashamed by it all.

We in the Labour Party want to see FÁS being strictly fit for purpose and in terms of governance the Bill goes a long way towards delivering the improvements that are required. However, FÁS needs to be more concerned with its essential core work of upskilling people's competences and qualifications, and matching people's skills with available job opportunities. It needs to provide specific and well-resourced training programmes, giving an opportunity for people who may have illnesses or disabilities to participate positively by developing their individual skills. In this context the CE schemes are vital. Where these can be shown to be of use from the perspective of rehabilitation, we must allow people to make their contribution so they feel they are part of the workforce. A flexible approach to participation on these schemes must be tolerated. The cost comes out of the public purse whether it is the dole or a CE scheme.

FÁS should not be pursuing far-fetched notions about courses, such as that inspired by NASA in Florida. Where was that all going? Where could it have gone? It seems like there was so much money available that FÁS did not know what to do with it. The budget had to be spent. This was the mentality and it needs to be changed. All expenditure should be put into value-for-money projects and spent at home where at all possible. FÁS must get back to basics and do the essential things well in an efficient and effective way.

As the numbers on the live register are approaching 500,000 — thankfully the most recent figures have shown them pulling back — there is an urgent need for a properly functioning employment and training agency. It should be one that meets the needs of those who require training, upholds high standards, has a clear focus and is involved in providing support services throughout the regions. It should also ensure that people are sufficiently skilled and trained to avail of employment opportunities as they arise.

Those requirements must always be uppermost in our minds when it comes to dealing with this legislation and in discussing the role of FÁS. The difficulty, however, is that in its current shape FÁS is not fit for purpose. It is dogged by scandal, corruption, low standards and ineptitude, as well as a lack of corporate governance and accountability. All those elements make FÁS a dysfunctional organisation and in my view a function of Fianna Fáil cronyism in the past. The scandalously generous financial package agreed with the former director general, Rody Molloy, following his resignation from his position, which was not consistent with Government guidelines, is an indicator of how Fianna Fáil looks after its friends.

If we are honest in terms of how we should go about tackling these problems and putting in place the kind of root and branch reform required, there needs to be an acceptance of the nature of the problems that beset FÁS. Hopefully some lessons have been learned. There has been a great deal of media comment regarding the social partners who are members of the board of FÁS and their apparent failure to take the necessary action following the revelations that emerged. However, it must be remembered it was the board that established the internal audit that revealed all of the unacceptable practices that were prevalent in FÁS. In addition, the board made it known that it was not informed about certain matters by members of the senior management of the organisation. Many members of the board were genuinely shocked and horrified by the material that has emerged.

That said, however, the FÁS scandal could and should be used as a case study for use in public policy education in how things can go wrong if proper controls and governance are not put in place. I welcome this new legislation as it attempts to address the various governance issues. I support the reduction in numbers of members of the board but I still have difficulties with the manner of their appointment, which will still leave it open to appointment of friends of the Minister of the day. There is a case to be made for worker directors, a matter we can tease out further on Committee Stage.

The provisions in the Bill relating to disclosure and conflicts of interest are positive. I agree with Senator O'Toole's recommendations on the board structure. It makes infinite sense to me and I look forward to some proposals in that regard. The section dealing with protection of whistleblowers is also to be welcomed as is the accountability of the director general to the Committee of Public Accounts and other committees of the Oireachtas.

As I said previously, FÁS, and indeed AnCO before it, have had a successful past and a very good record of achievement. We must try to get the organisation functioning well again. In respect of what has happened recently, there will be a day of judgment and hopefully the matters will get a fair hearing. However, we must ensure the new FÁS under new direction has the capability to pick up, as a second chance, those young people that our systems have failed. Most unemployed people look to FÁS as the main public employment service and FÁS needs to be as creative as it can be at that role.

We need to consider what is positive in FÁS and how we can improve it and not concentrate only on the controversies and scandals that have occurred. We need to examine whether the functions of FÁS are fit for our current needs and to correct any shortcomings. Correcting the problems that the Bill endeavours to will not solve all the problems of FÁS. Today's Irish Independent reported that pay for FÁS managers has grown twice as fast as that for non-managerial grades in the past ten years. Apparently, this was due to a significant degree to an increase in numbers at management level, at a time when most leading-edge companies are stripping out layers of management and supervisory staff. We need to look to leading-edge companies to give us the example and model for what needs to be done in public bodies and Departments.

In addition to the governance issues addressed in this legislation, FÁS needs good business leadership with a focus on value for money, performance measurement, accountability, elimination of waste, continuous improvement and, importantly, speed of decision making if it is to be transformed to the organisation needed to address today's training and unemployment challenges. We must not underestimate that challenge but we cannot afford to shirk it.