Seanad debates

Tuesday, 21 March 2017

2:30 pm

Photo of Gerard CraughwellGerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Before I offer criticism, I congratulate the Department of Social Protection which has done a lot of good work over many years to provide access to further education and training for members of society. I benefited from its support when I returned to college in 1990 and will be forever grateful for its assistance and the humane approach taken by the officials with whom I dealt. There was no political element to my interaction; I was just a member of the public who dealt directly with the Department, which is the way it should always be. Officials are well capable of doing their job without interference from politicians.

Any scheme that brings people back into the workforce and allows them to upskill and retrain must have the full support of all sides of this House. No scheme has yet been developed that is perfect in every way and there will always be complaints. There will always be a better way of doing things and somebody who knows better than everybody else. That is fine because that is what allows such schemes to evolve to deliver better programmes. The Department gets a kicking enough of the time, but it has been innovative, far-seeing and co-operative in the way it has dealt with programmes. However, political decisions need to be taken.

Seetec and Turas Nua are two English companies, one with an Irish name. The Minister should look at their websites and see to whom they report. It saddens me that offices are being opened by these companies around the country when we have the perfectly good Education and Training Boards Ireland, ETBI, which is capable of delivering programmes at the highest level. It saddens me that the further education sector which I entered in 1990 is still struggling to find its position in Irish society. The abolition of FÁS and the commencement of SOLAS have taken us a long way, but ETBI can do so much and needs to be included in the centre of this scheme.

Some of the back-to-education initiatives are excellent as ideas, but there is not enough financial support. People who find themselves unemployed, for whatever reason, should be offered a pathway back to work through education and training. ETBI and individual education and training boards have been exceptional in meeting the needs of the unemployed. The guidance service available in every community is excellent in helping people in identifying skill shortages. This is not the place to discuss people going back to study at level 5 when they already have level 8 or 9 qualifications. That is a matter for the Minister for Education and Skills and I will discuss it with him at some stage in the not-too-distant future. However, I ask the Minister to engage more with ETBI. I am not saying the Department does not engage, but it needs to do so more.Instead of opening new offices, let us utilise what we have already. There are 17 further education and training colleges in the country. We need to integrate education and training further into those colleges. I know that SOLAS is working towards that. Speaking as a former president of the Teachers' Union of Ireland, TUI, I know from some of my former colleagues, that there will be difficulties in doing that. The TUI was never afraid to negotiate and was never afraid to meet a Government Department halfway. That has been proven in the recent negotiations on the Lansdowne Road agreement. I beg the Minister for Social Protection to engage with the Education and Training Boards Ireland, ETBI, and get them involved. I ask him to engage with the small training companies in the country, those with three or four offerings. I understand from some of these trainers, for example people who specialised in health and safety training and nothing else, that they are finding it hard to meet some of the requirements that are being laid down. I am not sure whether that falls at the door of SOLAS, or the Department of Social Protection, but it is an issue that needs to be examined.

Let me say to the Minister and his officials to keep doing what they are doing but please keep one ear open all the time for suggestions. I ask him to engage with the ETBI and see how much of the demand of the Social Protection clients can be met through the further education and training sector. I believe that ETBI can deliver everything that is needed and more besides. I would not be a Member of the Seanad or have made it to President of the TUI but for the start I got in 1990 in the then Limerick senior college, now Limerick College of Further Education and I know my colleague, Senator Maria Byrne is a passionate guardian of that college. I will be forever grateful to the education and training boards and the Irish Vocational Education Association and the Department for Social Protection who went more than a mile to meet me.

The Minister should carry on with what he is doing and I thank him for his time.

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