"I HAVEN'T seen the White Paper. I haven't asked for it. It hasn't been discussed with me, nor should it be as it is a policy document of the Government," John Lynch says. Nevertheless, as its chief executive he is clearly apprehensive about the future of FAS and its 2,000 employees under the White Paper on the State's training and employment services.
The business lobby has long been anxious to reform the training system and to give employers more say - and control - over the State's £460 million a year training budget. They see FAS as a monster that has grown out of control.
Certainly its budget has grown dramatically since it was set up in 1988, when it had only £80 million a year. But in 1989, FAS was responsible for training only 67,000 people. Last year 118,000 people took part in its programmes. Staff numbers have been reduced from 2,500 to 2,000 over the same period.
Mr Lynch says it would affect efficiency and costs to dismember FAS, stressing that a fragmented service would be a poorer service. The unemployed will be left going round in circles.
The increase in FAS's influence can be accounted for partly by the Community Employment Programme - in the early days of FAS, social employment schemes catered for around 20,000 people a year last year, 53,000 took part in the CEP.
Industrial training programmes for the unemployed accounted for 33,500 people in 1996, compared with 29,000 a decade ago. Training was given to 31,000 people in the workplace last year, compared with 9,000 in 1989.
FAS has become skilled at exploiting EU funding, which amounted to £70 million last year. And Mr Lynch points out that much of the cost of the CEP is accounted for by transfers from social welfare.
Some 36 per cent of CEP participants are being placed in full-time jobs: 85 per cent are from the long-term unemployed.
Mr Lynch denies claims by some community groups that FAS has been reluctant to share power or resources within area partnerships, which were set up to combat unemployment in deprived areas. He also denies it wants to dominate the new Local Employment Service. He says FAS has, played a supportive role in both areas.
He says the past 10 years show amalgamation of services of the unemployed has worked. FAS is now providing job placements for a higher proportion of the working population than many equivalent agencies in other EU states.
While there is one placement officer for every 100 unemployed people in Germany and the Nordic countries, and one for every 160 unemployed in Britain, there is only one placement officer for every 1,400 unemployed people in the Republic.
Mr Lynch puts the efficiency of FAS services down in large part to the "one-stop shop" approach possible with integrated services.