Diarmuid Wilson (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach for accepting this Adjournment matter which I tabled. I know there were huge demands from other colleagues. I join the Cathaoirleach in warmly welcoming to the House the Minister of State, Deputy Damien English. His appointment is well-received and long overdue. I wish him well in his role as Minister of State at the Department of Education and Skills.

Last year, 33 VECs were replaced by 16 Education and Training Boards, ETBs. These were given full responsibility for the planning and delivery of education and training in their areas. As a result of the amalgamation, five ETBs have no training centre located within their jurisdiction. These are Cavan and Monaghan ETB, Laois and Offaly ETB, Kildare and Wicklow ETB, Tipperary ETB and Kilkenny and Carlow ETB. Cavan and Monaghan ETB has submitted detailed proposals to the Department of Education and Skills centred on the following provisions being put in place by 1 January 2015: apprenticeships training, contracted training, community training, the migration of IT systems, staffing requirements and budget transfer.

The former FÁS training centre located in Dundalk, County Louth was transferred to Louth and Meath ETB on 1 July. Cavan and Monaghan ETB chief executive, Mr. Martin O'Brien, and Mr. John Kearney, the education officer, have been attempting to communicate with Louth and Meath ETB regarding the transfer share of the training budget and the associated staffing since early May. However, to date none of the communication efforts initiated by it with the chief executive of Louth and Meath ETB have been reciprocated. I understand the training manager of the Dundalk training centre has indicated his refusal to present an overview of training being delivered in the Cavan and Monaghan region. This reluctance by Louth and Meath ETB to engage with Cavan and Monaghan ETB runs contrary to agreement protocols arranged by the Department of Education and Skills and SOLAS.

For Cavan and Monaghan ETB not to deliver its own training runs contrary to all national policy on job creation. In specific terms, the impracticality of Louth and Meath ETB delivering training in the Cavan and Monaghan ETB area will ensure that further education and training growth potential will not be fully achieved, and will result in job creation, the benefits of the national apprenticeship programmes and the facilities of Cavan Institute and Monaghan Institute not being fully maximised. It will also result in a lack of proper quality assurance systems and financial control frameworks for further education and training delivery in the Cavan and Monaghan region.

I understand Cavan and Monaghan ETB has requested the Department to appoint a facilitator to assist the engagement process between Cavan and Monaghan ETB and Louth and Meath ETB but nothing has happened in this regard to date. The board of Cavan and Monaghan ETB takes this matter very seriously and has made it clear to me, and to Deputies Brendan Smith and Joe O'Reilly who have raised this issue in the Lower House, that it will not tolerate not having a budget to help it provide training in its jurisdiction. The board has written to the Taoiseach seeking a meeting with him, such is the seriousness with which it takes this matter. I look forward to hearing the reply of the Minister of State.