asked the Minister for Labour the structures which are in place between his Department and the Department of Industry and Commerce which would allow consultation to take place on the subject of the available skills and experience of those who are unemployed in relation to the types of jobs that are being targeted for creation; and whether the type of training and enterprise programmes being offered by FÁS relate to the sectors targeted for growth by this Government.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Job Creation Policies.
12.
The consultation procedures between the Department of Industry and Commerce and my own Department on the interface between industrial and training policies has been strengthened following the improvements made in my Department's policy formulation role. Existing procedures are designed, inter alia, to ensure that job creation policies take account of the skills and qualifications of present and future members of the labour force, including the unemployed. The sectoral job creation objective outlined in section 5 of the Programme for National Recovery are consistent with this approach and my Department will continue to consult with the relevant agencies in relation to any skill requirements arising from individual elements of the programme.
The specific skill programmes of FÁS include courses in many areas of direct relevance to the sectors targeted in the programme, such as tool making, mechanical engineering, electronics, clothing, crafts and the food industry. The content and structure of these courses are subject to regular review. I should point out that this review must take account of the skill requirements of all industries, not just those targeted by the Government in the programme.
A different approach is called for in regard to the priority unemployed categories of unqualified early school leavers and the long term unemployed. Their training often takes the form of basic or intermediate skills which can be applied across a range of occupations rather than specific skills for a specific occupation. Where the qualifications and experience of the unemployed warrant it they are assigned to a specific skill programme of the type I have already referred to.
In regard to FÁS enterprise programmes, these primarily take the form of opportunities for either unemployed individuals wishing to become self-employed or for communities to engage in job creation. As such they are not specific to any sector.
I should like to thank the Minister for the lengthy reply to the question. However, the real issue in the question has not been addressed by him. Will the Minister tell the House the structures which have been strengthened? There was reference to the aim of those structures but I am not clear as to what is happening between the Departments of Labour and Industry and Commerce.
There are a number of matters involved. The first, and the most important, is that under the new FÁS structure FÁS will be running all the schemes. The policy unit is in the Department of Labour. My Department have a team working on policy. Up to this the officials who were involved in the schemes were also involved in policy making and they got so involved in the day to day working of the schemes that they were not able to concentrate on policy. Their sole objective now will be to prepare policy. They will have more time to be involved in designing schemes and keeping in touch with what is happening in Europe. They will also review existing schemes. In the course of my speech on the budget I stated that it was my intention to carry out a review of all our schemes and decide on what we should keep and what we should abolish. There are a number of other formal groups in the Department engaged in other work and I am not sure of their value.
They include the sectoral development committee and the consultative committee to the management committee on industrial policy. There are ad hoc arrangements and the most common are those involved in the Custom House Docks site. There is also the joint commission that studies the future skill needs in tool making in the electronics industry and that involves the IDA and AnCO. Industrial policy agencies are participating in some industrial training committees. There is also contact between the Departments of Industry and Commerce and Labour and between FÁS and Governments Departments.
Will the Minister tell the House how many people are involved in the policy unit in his Department? I appreciate that there are formalised structures between the Departments of Industry and Commerce and Labour but I suggest to the Minister that he should strengthen them and make them more applicable to the areas targeted for growth such as the food industry, tourism, forestry and so on. The prospect of any real growth in jobs will be lost if we do not have a trained work force ready to take up these opportunities.
I accept the Deputy's point and will take up the matter. Recently at a meeting with the executive of FÁS I asked them to relate their courses to areas such as tool making, mechanical engineering, electronics and the production of craft products. I included tourism, where the target is 25,000 jobs, as well as food, horticulture, forestry and marine. They must try to link up with these areas. I do not want to guess the number but I will pass the details to the Deputy.
Would the Minister accept, notwithstanding the detail of his response, that the great weight of FÁS activity in the next couple of years will be in the area of training for the unemployed as a social service rather than in response to a particular demand?
I do. There are areas where both objectives can be achieved. The social employment scheme can, for example, be related to tourism. Some of the best social employment schemes have been involved in the tourism sector. Very much credit was given last year to the social employment scheme in Sneem, which won the tidy towns competition. The same thing happened in the previous year in Kinsale. We should look at where resources can best be used to provide for social and economic needs.