FÁS now split between three Departments

No Department for Employment or Jobs

Fine Gael Enterprise, Trade and Employment Spokesperson Leo Varadkar TD, who is speaking in the Dáil debate on the reshuffle this afternoon, has accused the Government of forgetting about jobs and described the reshuffle as a ‘botch job’.

“Cowen has abolished the Department of Employment. No Government Department now has employment or jobs in its title when the country is facing the worst unemployment crisis in a generation. He could have combined all employment functions including benefits paid to adults of working age to a new department of employment and benefits.

“This reshuffle is a total botch job. Responsibility for FÁS has been divided among three Departments – Enterprise, Trade & Innovation, Social Protection and Education & Skills. The troubled agency will be overseen by three Ministers who will inevitably pass the buck from one to the other.

“Instead of public sector reform, we have a Junior Minister across three Departments, combining it with his existing responsibilities as Minister of State for Labour Affairs. Alongside this we have a Cabinet committee and a new quango – a Public Service Board. What a joke.”

FÁS should be overhauled, given a new slimmed-down remit and rebranded after further revelations about wrongdoing in the State agency were revealed in 22 audit reports released to Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD. Deputy Varadkar had received the 22 audit reports and was speaking as their contents were made available to the public.*

“These damaging revelations only serve to further damage FÁS’s reputation, and further undermine trust in senior management. It’s becoming impossible for frontline FÁS staff to do the job it was set up for: train people and help them find work. But with unemployment at 12.5% and 426,000 people on the live register, Ireland urgently needs an effective training agency.

“Given that the drip-feed of revelations looks set to continue, it’s time to draw a line under the sorry saga of FÁS and give the agency a complete overhaul. This must include:

 

• Transforming FAS into a slimmed-down agency with a tighter remit for these straitened economic times;

 

• Refocusing FÁS as a buyer of training services, instead of a provider;

 

• Rebranding the agency with a new remit and a stronger focus on training;

 

• Transferring control of Community Employment Schemes to local authorities;

 

• Retaining the apprentice system but developing closer links with the further education sector;

 

• Making training centres autonomous.

 

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FG Plan to reduce youth dole by a third

A set of Fine Gael proposals targeting youth unemployment will reduce by 1/3rd the numbers of under 25s on the Live Register in 2010, according to Fine Gael Leader, Enda Kenny TD. He was speaking at the launch of “Hope for a Lost Generation”, a document prepared by Fine Gael’s Enterprise Spokesman, Leo Varadkar T.D. The 30,000 under 25s that will be taken off the Live Register will be made up of a combination of workshare jobs created, national internship programmes, second chance education schemes and an expanded community employment scheme.

Commenting on the document the Fine Gael Leader, Enda Kenny, said:

“Fine Gael has a fundamentally different approach to Fianna Fail when it comes to the Budget and tackling this economic depression. We see the Budget as an opportunity to deliver pro jobs, pro enterprise policies so that we can get our country back to work. That is why Fine Gael has shown how, through our NewERA plan, we can deliver an €18bn stimulus plan over four years that will get 105,000 people back to work. In contrast Fianna Fail wants to cut our Capital budget by €1bn. We have also shown how we can deliver a targeted PRSI tax cut to employers and create 30,000. Fianna Fail has crippled Irish business with extras taxes and charges.

“Despite this obvious challenge the Government have failed to set a clear and deliberate jobs strategy to arrest and then reverse the tide of increasing unemployment in our country. They have been focused too much on balancing the books and engaging in endless dialogue with union leaders. In the meantime our dole queues grow ever longer. Today’s proposals, targeting a lost generation in this crisis, is the latest contribution by Fine Gael to a coherent and thought out jobs strategy to cut our dole queues while fixing our budget.”

Commenting on the report its author, Leo Varadkar said:

“Today’s set of proposals involves targeted interventions in the Labour market that will take more than 30,000 people off the Live Register. The proposals in this document are deliberately targeted at those unemployed people under the age of 25. There is a real risk that we will have a permanently lost generation if something proactive is not done to stem this loss of talent and ability from our economy.

“That is why we have allowed for a net €245m worth of Labour Market interventions in our budget perspective which will be published on Friday. This money will be used to create: 13,000 graduate internship placements, 10,000 second chance education scheme placements, 5,000 extra CES places and 10,000 jobs retained through a Government supported workshare scheme.

“We conservatively estimate that over 30,000 of these 38,000 or so places will be filled by people on the Live Register. In this way we are confident that more than 1/3rd of the 87,100 under 25s on the Live Register can come off that list in 2010. This is the type of intervention, targeted and specific to our needs, that is required to get us out of this economic mess. This is the type of intervention that is sadly missing from this Government.”

The Fine Gael plan for youth employment can be accessed here.

Jobs, jobs, jobs must be at heart of next Budget

Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD has warned that Ireland is on the cusp of a long-term unemployment timebomb, which according to the CSO has shot up by 55% in the last 12 months.

“Ireland is already grappling with the return of emigration and widespread joblessness. We are now also facing the return of long-term unemployment, with the CSO revealing a 55% increase over the last 12 months.

“Fine Gael is the only Party to set out concrete and effective proposals on jobs. But Fianna Fáil has ignored repeated calls from Fine Gael to develop a strategy to retain existing jobs and create new ones. The Government has one last chance to make amends by putting jobs at the heart of the next Budget.

“Ireland now has the second highest unemployment rate in the eurozone. That is why the Budget must introduce a comprehensive package of jobs measures, including Fine Gael’s proposal to cut employers’ PRSI, avoid cuts to the capital budget, and freeze all Government-imposed charges on business.”

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan misled the Dáil by claiming that Rody Molloy’s €1.1 million golden handshake was within official guidelines, when internal Department of Finance memos reveal the deal was ‘not fully in accordance’ with guidelines, according to Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD.

“Brian Lenihan overruled his own guidelines by approving Rody Molloy’s €1.1 million golden handshake. Internal memos reveal that Department of Finance Assistant Secretary John O’Connell told his counterpart in the Department of Enterprise that although Mr Molloy’s terms were ‘not fully in accordance’ with guidelines, ‘I am to convey sanction to the proposed terms on condition that this is an exceptional case’.

“This flatly contradicts Minister Lenihan’s assertion to me in a recent Parliamentary Question that his Department: ‘was satisfied that the terms of the package were appropriate in the circumstances. I was advised orally by my officials about the final package and having confirmed that it was within the guidelines I did not object to the terms’.

“I believe this proves that Minister Lenihan misled the Dáil. He must immediately come into the Dáil and make a statement on this matter.

“These revelations are yet more evidence of how Fianna Fáil looks after its friends and cronies. There’s one law for the friends of Fianna Fáil, like Rody Molloy, and another for the rest of us.”

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Speaking after Tánaiste Mary Coughlan confessed in the Dáil that she knew about plans to allow disgraced former FÁS director general Rody Molloy to keep his car, Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD has challenged her to state whether she approved.

The Tánaiste told Enda Kenny in the Dáil today (Thursday) that: ‘I was aware that the former director general wished to retain the car’, adding that ‘I was aware of the situation’. This has ended weeks of speculation about what the Tánaiste knew about Mr Molloy’s full golden handshake from FÁS.

However, the Tánaiste did not respond when Deputy Varadkar asked her whether she expressed a view to the Board of FÁS about its plans to gift the top-range car to Mr Molloy.

Speaking today, Deputy Varadkar said: ‘I welcome the Tánaiste’s decision to bring to an end to weeks of speculation about whether she knew about Mr Molloy’s company car. But we still don’t know whether she approved of the entire golden handshake, which also included a €1.1 million pension deal’.

“The Tánaiste must now settle this matter by stating whether she felt that it was appropriate for Mr Molloy to walk away from FÁS with a massive pension deal and a company car.
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Deep divisions have emerged between the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste over whether to back the FÁS Board, according to Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD.

Deputy Varadkar was speaking after Niall Saul, the head of the FÁS Audit Committee, confirmed that Tánaiste Mary Coughlan had planned to publicly support the existing FÁS Board, but was prevented from doing so by the Taoiseach.

“The Government is in disarray over how to handle FÁS. Brian Cowen’s decision to overrule Mary Coughlan’s plans to publicly support FÁS shows the Taoiseach does not have faith in the Tánaiste’s handling of the FÁS crisis.

“Ireland needs stable Government during this time of unprecedented crisis. But the Cabinet split on the FÁS Board highlights the instability at the heart of the Cabinet, and its inability to take difficult decisions as it prepares for the December Budget.

“Serious questions must also be raised about the Tánaiste’s ability to run the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment. With unemployment at 12.6%, and 430,000 people on the live register, her Department has never had a more crucial role to play. But Mary Coughlan’s floundering over FÁS shows she is the wrong person to get the country back to work.
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Varadkar calls for clarification from Tanaiste on legal threat aspect to Molloy deal

Fine Gael Enterprise, Trade & Employment Spokesperson, Leo Varadkar TD today (Sunday) called on Tanaiste Mary Coughlan to clarify whether the former Director General of FAS, Mr Rody Molloy, threatened legal action in advance of receiving a ‘golden handshake’ as part of his resignation deal, or not. Deputy Varadkar was speaking after an interview by the Taoiseach on RTE’s This Week programme.

“The Tanaiste should now clarify if the agreement to the pension top-up deal for Rody Molloy was based on a threat of legal action or not. The Taoiseach’s radio interview contradicts the previous statements she has made and those of her Department’s Secretary General, Sean Gorman, at the Public Accounts Committee.

“The Taoiseach’s continued contention that the payment to Mr Molloy was ‘fair and right’ and in the realm of normal rights and entitlements is astounding when we’re talking about a public servant who presided over flagrant waste at the State Agency.
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FÁS Logo

Any clear-out of FÁS apparatchiks must include the senior executives who allowed massive amounts of taxpayers’ money to be wasted on first class flights, expensive hotels and pointless advertising campaigns, according to Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD.

“Tánaiste Mary Coughlan is still refusing to take the essential step and dismiss the FÁS board. Even worse, Taoiseach Brian Cowen will not support calls for the board to be replaced, probably because this might set a precedent for his own Government.

“I believe there should be a thorough clean-out of senior FÁS executives who allowed the culture of greed and waste to flourish for so long. That is why the forthcoming legislation to restructure the agency must include a provision to replace senior managers who allowed this culture to thrive, as well as the Board.

“We need to see accountability for managers in the public service. Managers who do a bad job should lose their jobs, and managers who are found to have broken the rules or engaged in corruption should lose their pensions too.

“The Comptroller & Auditor General’s report on FÁS is only the latest in a litany of scandals at the agency. Only a complete change of culture at the agency will ensure that this flagrant waste of taxpayers’ money never happens again, allowing FÁS to return to its core remit of upskilling and retraining the hundreds of thousands of newly unemployed.”

This is one report too many – Coughlan must take action at executive level

Heads must roll on the FÁS board and at senior executive level after the C&AG report confirmed a litany of bad practice and waste of taxpayers’ money in the agency’s Corporate Affairs department, Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD said today (Thursday).

“The C&AG’s report confirms shocking levels of waste within FÁS. Accountability for this bad practice goes all the way to the top of the organisation. Taxpayers and the thousands of hard-working FÁS employees deserve no less. Yet no single member of the FÁS board, or anyone at senior management level, has been held accountable.

“The C&AG’s revelations include the spending of €622,000 on nothing, €600,000 on TV advertising which was never broadcast, ongoing overspending, and the payment of €9,200 for a car which was never delivered.

“However, the Tánaiste’s response to the report beggars belief. She seems to think that limited internal restructuring within FÁS, which has an annual budget of €1 billion, is sufficient to prevent this happening again. Nowhere in her statement does she acknowledge the fact that those who oversaw this waste are still in place. …[more]