We must learn lessons from the FÁS scandal

There is understandable anger across the education sector at the sheer scale of the waste of public money revealed recently by the Comptroller and Auditor General. As president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors from 2001 to 2006, I witnessed the shocking manner in which FÁS wasted public funds in advertising and promoting the annual Opportunities Fair in Croke Park.

Guidance counsellors received a letter inviting them to bring students to the event. There was no need to spend a extra cent on advertising and promotion – so why was public money wasted? The answer to this question is hugely important, as it offers us the opportunity to rectify the under-investment in education and training that has plagued the Irish education system. We have invested a far lower percentage of GDP in education than most OECD countries. But we need to understand why it is so difficult to break this cycle of under-investment.

First, a history lesson.

By 2001 unemployment had all but disappeared as an issue in the Irish economy but FÁS, the agency tasked with dealing with training those seeking employment, continued to receive over €1,000 million per year to address a nonexististant problem.

If the system of budget allocation had allowed for funds to be allocated to the areas of greatest need, these funds could have been used to renovate hundreds of dilapidated schools throughout the State, update and modernise science and technology laboratory facilities and so on. Why could this not have happened? The problem is with the system itself. The Secretary General of each Government department is judged on the size of the budget they can negotiate with the Department of Finance. The role of the chief executive of every unit of that Department, or agency of that Department is to spend that entire budget, so that an increase can be sought for the following year. This is the golden rule of the public service. If any principal officer or chief executive of a State agency suggested that they did not need their previous year’s budget allocation because of changed circumstances his/her sanity would be questioned.

Rody Molloy and the senior management of FÁS were therefore faced with an acute dilemma during the early years of this decade. How were they going to spend €1,000 million per year? Their solution? To overspend massively on advertising, organise lavish trips to Florida and give senior managers large expense accounts. In doing this, FÁS was simply following the golden rule – spend up to and beyond last year’s budget, to avoid cuts next year.

Rody Molloy got an enhanced pension when public anger forced his resignation last year; he had simply followed this golden rule.

If we now want to address the huge under-investment in education and training in Ireland, we will have to reform the entire method of resource allocation.

At present, we provide each unemployed person with a comprehensive guidance interview which helps to identify the deficiencies in their current skills profile. These deficiencies can only by addressed by having access, without loss of benefit, to appropriate education and training. But this education and training cannot happen unless the resources are allocated by the Department of Finance.

We can now learn from the FÁS debacle and restructure the existing budgetary process. By doing this we can address the long-term education and training needs of our people.