HEALTH MATTERS: The Construction Industry Federation has accused FÁS of being slow to issue Safe Pass cards to some 20,000 construction workers who had completed the necessary course. CIF also criticised FÁS on its provision of specialised training courses. Since January 1st certain workers have had to carry a skills card, having completed courses.

According to CIF, employers are complaining they cannot get their staff enrolled due to shortages of course places. In some cases the waiting list is four months or more. CIF argues that FÁS should have more private trainers available to cope with the demand, courses should be available in every region and FÁS publicity should be sharper.

CIF claims it raised these issues with the training body a year ago and it is "disturbed by the lack of adequate response to its justified complaints". It describes FAS's performance as "extremely disappointing" and professes to be "coming to the view that the construction skills certification scheme should be removed from FÁS and given to an independent body with its own funding".

Mr Peter McCabe, CIF's safety director, said: "There's a huge backlog now and there isn't adequate provision or promotion of training for categories of workers. We've now got statutory duties that came in earlier this year and a big date coming at us on July 1st. We've agreed as a partnership to have this training. It's a mandatory requirement to have it. . . It leaves us with a statutory duty that it's very hard for the companies to meet. What we're saying is that if FÁS in the end can't do it, they should provide the funding - and there's no shortage of funding for it - that money needs to be given to someone that can run it."

In reply, FÁS said that by the end of May 2002, some 69,000 applications for the Safe Pass Programme had been received, of which 49,000 were processed. A surge in demand earlier this year required special measures that were implemented by the training body. More than 280 trainers were now in place to deal with Safe Pass training. FÁS noted its special relationship with CIF, which is represented on the board of FÁS and on various committees. It felt CIF had "ample opportunity to put forward proposals and to engage in joint activities to promote safety and training in the industry".

The Health and Safety Authority could not comment as the two relevant persons within the HSA were outside the State.

Mr Eric Fleming, construction secretary of SIPTU, said CIF was "to some degree right". SIPTU agrees there is a problem but after lobbying by the trade union, FÁS has begun to clear the backlog on the Safe Pass card.

"But what I don't like is the haphazard way that FÁS has approached the funding of this whole thing."

While there is a multi-million euro approach to apprenticeships, "you've got this Mickey Mouse budget for providing this training. We're very upset about that," he said.

"We've been lobbying FÁS. We got the HSA chairman to write to FÁS and cautioning them that they would have to release those funds immediately so we didn't have a crisis within the industry.

"We're going to have a crisis very soon. And the crisis is over a very large proportion of scaffolders working in the building industry without their certification."

He says many scaffolders are not getting training because of employers, some of whom, according to Mr Fleming, "won't put the lads through because it costs too much, which is outrageous. So the CIF are a bit disingenuous about that because quite a number of employers are not registering their employees for semi-skilled courses."

Mr Fleming acknowledges that FAS has been "superb" in dealing with Safe Pass training. "We publicly have to go on record and say that they have done a fantastic job there. But in getting the cards out to people, it has been very slow."