Vol. 501 No. 4
64 Mr. Higgins (Mayo) asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if the Obair scheme is under the aegis of FÁS or under the direct aegis of her Department; the remit of Obair; and if the Obair programme will continue for the foreseeable future. [6352/99]
The Local Employment Service, Obair, operates and is managed nationally under the aegis of my Department. Its designated role is to provide a service for the long-term unemployed and socially excluded at greatest remove from the labour mar ket. It is funded almost in its entirety by my Department although with a contribution from the relevant partnership in each case. Each LES has a local management committee which is normally drawn from the partnership in which it is based. The LES is operational in 18 areas, 16 partnerships and two non-partnerships, and is currently being extended to a further seven areas and there is a commitment in principle to extend it to all partnership areas.
Each year there is a substantial investment in the employment services, both in the FÁS employment service and the LES, and I have been concerned for some time that the services operating as they do largely independent of each other, are not functioning optimally as a resource and support to the unemployed and other jobseekers. Therefore, I intend to bring proposals to Government shortly which provide for a closer alignment of the two services and will assign to an advisory board, representative of the FÁS board and the stakeholders in the LES, responsibility for development of the employment service in a coherent and integrated way which will allow both elements of the service to play to their strengths and provide for local input to both elements of the service.
