Mary Moran (Labour)
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I congratulate the Minister of State in this public forum and wish him every success in his job. I do not doubt that he will prove himself as capable a Minister of State as he is a Deputy. I welcome him to the House for this debate.

The Minister of State might be aware of the briefing given last week in the Houses that was led by students from the National Learning Network who were participating in SOLAS-funded training courses. As a result of budget 2014, they have suffered a €20 reduction in their weekly training allowance since 1 July. The participants at the briefing outlined the negative impact of the reduction and what €20 meant to them. When a person is living on just €188 per week, €20 is a significant amount. They brought their message home to us. For one, €20 meant the difference between a healthy diet and an unhealthy diet. Reversing the cut would improve her lifestyle and reduce the cost to the State in health care.

Another student spoke emotionally about how any reduction in the training allowance would have a negative impact on his mental health. He valued work and the positive effect of SOLAS on his life. His appeal to have his dignity respected was heartfelt.

Some 6,300 people are affected by the reduction, amounting to €6.5 million per year. While I understand the Government's need to reduce the debt burden, it is difficult to appreciate this reduction, which affects the well-being of vulnerable people in an unequal way. The modest nominal cost savings of €6.5 million can be achieved elsewhere in the budget. As has been proven in many countries, if we invest in our young and their education, we would save money in health care and mental health care in the long run. The Minister of State is barely in the hot seat. When he catches his breath, will he revisit this reduction? We need to encourage, support and invest in the professional futures of SOLAS students.

Despite SOLAS having a high success rate, with 90% of students continuing on to further education, if they can afford it, or employment, I was concerned when some of the students last week mentioned the dropout rate, which was mainly due to financial issues. I appeal to the Minister of State to support SOLAS students and to help those struggling to afford training courses by examining the level of investment in SOLAS-funded programmes. Investment in SOLAS is an investment in our people and economy. It was evident from the trainees' stories that the courses were invaluable in allowing people to return to work, giving them confidence, ensuring better mental health and providing a community of support.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for her kind words and look forward to working with her. As she is a colleague from the north east, it is a pleasure to engage with her on this issue during my first official appearance. I hope to be able to work with her on it in future. We must cover many issues. I am sorry, but I missed last week's briefing due to a clash with a meeting of my former committee. I would be interested in meeting a select group of those participants to discuss this matter. The Senator and I will have a chat about it. I would be keen to discuss the dropout rate.

The payment of an additional training allowance of €31.80 per week for the long-term unemployed was introduced during a period of high employment as an incentive for them to participate in FÁS training courses. This allowance was later extended to those persons in receipt of social welfare disability payments to introduce equality of treatment for all people in training. The payment was reduced from €31.80 per week to €20 per week as part of budget 2011. In the present economic situation this incentive is no longer considered appropriate and, as part of budget 2014, it was decided to cease it for all SOLAS participants commencing courses after 1 January 2014. This change does not apply to persons who commenced a course prior to January 2014 and they will continue to receive the long-term unemployed bonus payment for the duration of their courses.

Various allowances and additional payments were generated during the Celtic tiger years when we had a great deal of money. These allowances were introduced at that time, and rightly so, but the tax stream to back them up was not put in place. Now that the tax receipts are much lower, there is less tax to go round and changes must be made. However, travel supports continue to be available to SOLAS participants, including people with a disability. The additional training allowance was never intended to address the cost of participation in training. The nature of the payment as an incentive rather than as a measure intended to meet the cost of participation is demonstrated by the fact that it was not available to all people in receipt of payments from the Department of Social Protection, which would have been the case if it were intended to meet meal and travel costs.

This reflects the entirely different employment situation that now pertains, as well as the very difficult budgetary position the Government is in while we endeavour to protect the overall level of provision of education and training. It is hoped that participants see the value in education and training as a gateway to employment and will continue to participate in high-quality, relevant and well-designed programmes. I accept that people are under immense pressure at all times to survive on the social welfare payment, whether they attend a course or not. I can understand it would have been a major help to have that additional allowance, but the problem is to try to balance the books overall. As I have said, I am happy to meet them to discuss the issue with them. There is no scope to revisit this decision against a very difficult budgetary background in which continued savings are required in education and training while we protect the overall level of service that the sector provides.

The further education and training sector is undergoing major structural reform. In reforming the structures in further education and training, FET, we undertook a critical examination of the overall further education and training sector. Following consultation with stakeholders and the development of a strategy for a co-ordinated FET sector, the second half of last year saw the establishment of 16 education and training boards to replace 33 VECs, and the establishment of SOLAS to bring strategic direction to the sector. I am glad to say that at this stage all former FÁS training provision has been transferred to the education and training boards. The education and training boards will play a key role in ensuring the provision of 21st-century high-quality further education and training programmes. Any future policy development and legislation in the further education and training sector will be guided by the principles outlined in the five-year strategy document recently published by SOLAS.

The overall funding allocation for the Department of Education and Skills is determined as part of the annual budgetary process and the funding allocation is subsequently decided upon in that context, having considered priorities and requirements across the wider education sector. SOLAS will be responsible for allocating funding to the respective education and training boards in that regard. It will then be a matter for each education and training board to manage its resources annually.

I thank Senator Moran for raising this issue with me. As she said, I just inherited the brief a few hours ago. I am just reading into it and I want to assure her that I will work on these issues and will meet some of these people to discuss the issues with them.

Mary Moran (Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. I appreciate and will take him up on his offer to meet some of the people from the National Learning Network who are directly involved. I appreciate that the Minister of State is only in his role a few hours, but as spokesperson for education on this side of the House I want to ensure we have plenty to talk about.

Pat O'Neill (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for attending and, as I said, we were not too hard on him on his first day in the job.