Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 132: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if additional FÁS training places will be made available following her decision to cut jobseeker's benefit from 15 months to 12 months. [9243/09]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Matters relating to the payment of Jobseekers Benefit are the responsibility of the Department of Social and Family Affairs. The Government is determined to do all in its power to tackle the rise in numbers of people finding themselves without work or with reduced working weeks. Our approach in tackling the issue is multi-layered and centres on restoring our public finances, protecting employment across the economy, re-training those without work; and attracting new investment and jobs to our shores.

To assist individuals through the provision of education and training opportunities I recently announced the availability of 51,000 new training places under the FÁS Training Initiatives Strategy. These places are in addition to the 27,000 previously planned for 2009 under the Bridging Foundation Training, Specific Skills Training and Traineeships Programmes. These programmes will provide short training courses for those who are recently unemployed.

The Training Initiative Strategy enhances the traditional mix of course offerings and will be delivered through three core-training initiatives, Short Courses, Night Courses and On-line Courses. The courses are for highly employable persons who wish to add to their existing skills level and improve their prospects of re-entering the labour market. The night courses offer further flexibility and the on-line courses provide an excellent option for those who need a fast flexible intervention and who prefer a self directed e-learning and blended learning environment.

FÁS' Employment Services together with Local Employment Services have also put in place measures designed to provide increased capacity for the rise in referrals from the Department of Social and Family Affairs and the increased number of unemployed seeking job search assistance voluntarily. The implementation of these measures has increased the monthly capacity of job search services from 6,500 to 12,250 persons per month.

My Department, in conjunction with FÁS are working hard to achieve greater capacity within existing resources to meet the on-going challenges in the labour market. We are presently examining a number of ways to make training and education services available to a greater number of unemployed persons. While a significant amount of work has been done in a short space of time, the Government is intent on achieving greater capacity within existing resources. In this context we will bring forward further measures to make training and education services available to a greater number of unemployed persons over the coming weeks and months.