I refer the Deputy to the reply I gave in this House on Tuesday, 30 June 1998 to Question No. 1.
In that reply I referred to Ireland's employment action plan, published and laid before this House only last April. A key element of the plan is the commitment to maximise existing resources devoted to the long-term unemployed through enhanced co-operation between FÁS and the employment support services of the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs and through giving the local employment service an integral role in the national employment service. From my perspective, a priority is to get both FÁS and the LES working together in a complementary manner to ensure that the needs and interests of the unemployed, in particular the long-term unemployed, are best met. The further expansion of the local employment service, to which there is a commitment in Partnership 2000, will take place in that context.
While I am cognisant of the voluntarist ethos which is associated with the local employment service, I am equally cognisant of the rights and obligations that attach both to the State and to unemployed people, as recognised in Partnership 2000 in the matter of delivering labour market reintegration supports. How best to reconcile these principles I would see being worked out in the context of the move towards greater co-operation and integration between the different strands of the employment services.