Madam, – Minister for Education Mary Coughlan’s weak promise of a renewed and freshly mandated training agency to replace Fás some time in the New Year is a pathetic gesture from a Government that has clearly lost the plot.
Jobs and training could and should be created now on the back of substantial existing resources. There are thousands of community groups, such as the organisation which I am involved in, struggling on small funding and heavily reliant on volunteers to provide valuable services, including training.
Most of these groups are good, solid organisations with legal status, often charitable status and already registered employers. They could be directly supported with funding specifically for job creation and associated training (instead of the invention of some expensive new bureaucratic agency).
Such community groups could also be enlisted into county partnerships to tackle the problem of unfinished “ghost” housing estates. The ideas and skills available in these groups would be invaluable in figuring out the best, most cost-effective, socially and environmentally beneficial way to use these ghost estates. The resulting actions would create further training and employment opportunities. For instance, some houses in each estate could become eco-building and renewable energy demonstration areas with associated fruit, vegetable and herb gardens offering a range of training opportunities. – Yours, etc,