PROPOSALS to break up FAS have been dropped. This follows strong opposition from the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, at Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, to a Government draft White Paper.
Other Labour and Democratic Left Ministers are also understood to have expressed reservations.
An amended draft of the White Paper on Human Resource Development is to be presented to next week's Cabinet meeting. It is expected to be adopted.
The original draft proposed restructuring the State training and employment agency so that it would be left with responsibility only for training unemployed people, retaining about a third of its 2,000 staff members.
Most FAS staff would have been transferred to a new board which would have taken over the job vacancies and placement activities the agency inherited from Manpower.
Training for those at work, and support services for industry would have been transferred to Forbairt.