Rody Molloy knows all about fast-lane economic growth and its consequences. With an insider's eye on Government policy, he agrees that, five years ago, no-one expected virtually full-employment. What is more, he says, no-one expected it three years ago.

At that time, Mr Molloy was working in the economic policy unit at the upper reaches of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Last month, he became director general at FAS, the State training body.

A civil servant since 1973, Mr Molloy worked in the Department of An Taoiseach during the Jack Lynch administration. Mr Lynch once said the electorate would be entitled to vote him out of office it unemployment rose above 100,000 - it did. Today the problems very different. The Republic, long a place where work was short, has a surfeit of jobs. This has implications for FAS, whose services were previously seen as a refuge for the long-term unemployed - and not much else.

The body still manages the Community Employment Scheme and apprenticeship programmes. In all, it has about 100,000 "clients". But no-one predicted it would today be expending considerable energy and resources trying to lure workers into a State which is booming, with a historically low unemployment rate and chronically short of labour.

This weekend, Mr Molloy will lead a recruitment fair to Cape Town, South Africa. He spearheaded another in the Czech capital Prague only last month. For a body whose ground seemed largely confined to deprived urban and rural areas, this is indeed a change.

The Jobs Ireland initiative allows companies to advertise positions in the Republic on a FAS website. In addition, job applicants can post their own details on the site to be read by employers. Job fairs provide another point of contact.

That firms need skilled staff is not in doubt. At the Prague event, for example, 15 companies - including big-name players such as Intel - advertised vacancies. Some offered relocation packages worth £30,000. Expect similar fare in Cape Town.

The Prague event was attended by 4,000 job applicants and it subsequently generated in excess of 10,000 "hits" on the website, www.jobsireland.com, which had more than three million hits in its first month.

Mr Molloy, however, is aware that the real measure of the initiative's success will be in the number of vacancies filled.

"It's getting a huge response in terms of accessing the website. I think we need to start looking at the issue of actual jobs filled. Now is the time to start looking at that."

Further questions surround the programme's funding, until now paid from FAS resources. "I would see us looking at changes. Employers say Jobs Ireland is wonderful. The test of how wonderful it is depends on how much they're prepared to pay for it."

Jobs Ireland started as an initiative at the FAS press office. Integrating it into the broader company will be a key task facing a change management unit set up within FAS since Mr Molloy's arrival.

Charged with defining a "new strategy" for the body, it will be led by Ms Patricia Curtin, who has been appointed director of organisational development and change. The unit will answer to an executive board.

The support of FAS's 2,000 staff will be crucial. "A poor strategy statement that has the ownership of workers is better than a well-written statement that doesn't have such ownership," he says.

As Mr Molloy sees it, FAS needs to be able to respond quickly to change in the broader economy. Stating that the body has responded to developments three years too late in the past, he says: "I want to try to eliminate that gap so we can be more responsive.

"I want FAS in the next five years to be seen by all as a major player in terms of assisting in the whole labour agenda. I think we have a role to play in that.

"We also have a role in offering for business a whole package of training to improve the skills of people already in employment. We also have a problem still with people who are unemployed, especially those who are unemployed over the long term. There are still casualties out there who, for various reasons, find it very difficult to get into employment."

FAS has responsibility to find employment for disabled people. Emphasising that it can also find work for unemployed people who suffer from poor health or encounter difficulty reading, he says: "We'll never have the chance again, I suspect, given the labour shortage in the economy."

Here, Mr Molloy sees a continuing role for the Community Employment Scheme, under which the FAS currently pays 33,400 people to do socially "useful" work in public bodies.

Yet change is likely. Of the number employed in the scheme, Mr Molloy says: "We'll be moving to bring it down gradually. We're not going to pull the plug. We're talking about a gradual winding down."

Part of the reduction will come from natural attrition, as people join the workforce. This can already be seen; the scheme once employed about 41,000 people, says Mr Molloy.

More reductions will be achieved by transferring some scheme workers from FAS to the direct employment of the bodies in which they work. For example, people who work as assistants to national school teachers will be employed by the Department of Education and Science instead of by FAS.

Mr Molloy also has thoughts on the future management of FAS's apprenticeship programmes, which employ 23,500 people. Here, he says two issues are crucial. "There's still a snobbish thing where parents look at getting the kids into college. The evidence shows that anyone with a proper trade can command very high wages in the new economy."

It is not that he is against colleges. Indeed, he thinks it is important to establish links with colleges and universities so that qualified tradespeople can gain credits for their expertise.

Further concern surrounds young apprentices who are lured by the fast-growing economy into permanent work before receiving their full qualification. If there is a slump, Mr Molloy says such people will be the first to lose their jobs.

So can the boom last? "I would be confident certainly in terms of the medium term that things will continue reasonably well. We have to build an organisation that can anticipate change and can respond to it."

Mr Molloy agrees with the view of the Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, that an "open-door" policy for new workers coming into the State is not viable. While there is a full open market for labour within the EU, entry from outside it should be to meet specific needs.

Mr Molloy says the question of when asylum seekers should be allowed work is not in the gift of FAS. The body, he says, has provided training services for asylum seekers at Tallaght and Coolmine in Dublin, a role he sees as an integral part of FAS's business.

From Crinkill in Co Offaly, Mr Molloy cites his passion for hurling. Yet his professional outlook seems grounded more in reason than passion. "I do not have a bleeding heart public service ethic," he says. "Employers would have had a negative view of this organisation. Jobs Ireland has changed that."