John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I am sure the director general will be a person of the utmost quality. However, it is not that long since the ordinary staff of FÁS would have felt their views would not have been adequately represented by the person who filled that position. Therefore, that provision is not particularly acceptable. The Bill proposes to reduce significantly the number of people on the board, but the board will still have a membership of 11, including the chairperson and the director general. I do not see any reason one of the other nine people could not be a representative of the staff of the organisation, someone independent of the director general of the organisation. I feel it is important to provide for this.

In general I am not someone who stands up here to support union interests or such things. However, if we have learned anything from the morass in FÁS over recent months, we should take on board the view of the ordinary workers in FÁS who operate the agency who felt they were not listened to sufficiently and were badly managed by those in senior management positions. This has proven to be the case. It is not acceptable for the Government to say the workers will be represented by the most senior manager in the organisation on the board.