Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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6. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will ensure that adult education classes proceed this term through Cavan and Monaghan Education and Training Board; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40073/24]

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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12. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his views on reports that adult education tutors with Cavan and Monaghan Education and Training Board were informed at minimal notice that their contracts were suspended and that classes would not commence as planned this September. [40072/24]

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister of State may be aware that in Cavan and Monaghan ETB and in the other ETB areas, virtually at the last moment, a number of tutors of adult education courses were told those courses had been suspended. Students of some of those courses attended only to find out they had been cancelled. What are the Minister of State and the Government doing to resolve this situation?

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 6 and 12 together. I share the Deputy's concern to ensure that adult learners are supported in their learning journey in our further and education and training system. On the issues raised in the Deputy's question, the Minister has no function in respect of the operational management of our education and training boards, ETBs.

As independent statutory bodies, the allocation and management of funding to different FET programmes within each education and training board, the scheduling of courses and the conversion process for adult educators are matters for the relevant ETB.

The Department understands that Cavan and Monaghan Education and Training Board has postponed some planned provision to remain within its overall budgetary allocation. All ETBs have been responding to funding pressures in 2024, largely arising from the need to prioritise capacity in craft apprenticeship as well as reflecting the demand-led nature of FET provision. In doing so, the objective has been to minimise disruption to learners as much as possible.

The details of the conversion process for adult tutors to the new public service grade of adult educators were advised by the Department to the ETBs in April. The Department has been informed by Education and Training Boards Ireland that this work is near completion and the conversion process should take place by January 2025 at the latest. This process, in itself, does not provide any reason for classes not to commence or for contracts to be suspended.

The Cavan and Monaghan ETB has advised the Department that it informed all its tutors of the timeframe for conversion and that their existing terms and conditions will continue to apply until the conversion process is complete.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I have to say, that was the most non-answer answer I have ever heard in this Chamber. It is not good enough. To suggest the ETBs are fiefdoms making decisions independent of the Government is simply ludicrous. It is the Government that sets policy and allocates budgets, so for the Minister of State to say he is aware of funding constraints within the ETB and further education sector, without acknowledging that the Government has a hand in that, is disingenuous in the extreme.

The problem is that there is a human cost to all this. I have received several emails I could read out to the Minister of State, but I will read an excerpt from one I received recently. A tutor informed me that this had gone on for almost five weeks and that, instead of working, she was facing a difficult job search. She said that at times, this undermined her self-confidence and integrity. She asked us to please make a change for her because, she wrote, it seems the Government does not care. She said I have a direct connection to the Government that may influence its actions.

I again ask the Minister of State whether the Government will intervene in this situation. If it does not, the entire further education sector is going to be undermined.

Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I have been contacted by tutors and by students who want to undertake these courses, and the tutors were given very little notice. They were contacted within days of when they assumed they were going to start delivering their classes. One tutor who delivers up to six art classes a week suddenly has no classes. She depends on that funding; it is her job. Students who have been in contact have said they may take on classes as a pastime but for many, it is progression to a different trade or job. Many others are learning English in order that they can work in this country.

I spoke to the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, about this a few weeks ago. He said he was aware of it and was making efforts to resolve the issue, which affects a number of ETBs including that for Cavan and Monaghan, but the Minister of State is now saying the Government has no responsibility. We are hearing different things. The Minister was supposed to give me a progress report but, of course, I have not heard anything from him since then. I would like an update on this. It has to be dealt with. We cannot leave people, both tutors and students, without classes indefinitely.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I think both Deputies will understand the structure of ETBs and their governance, and to say otherwise would be to misrepresent their structure. To address the funding of further education, our Department has significantly increased its investment in further education and training in recent years, from about €909 million in 2020 to more than €1.055 billion in 2024, excluding capital expenditure.

As a State agency responsible for further education and training, SOLAS allocates this funding to the 16 education and training boards and other agencies to deliver FET based on agreed learner numbers and programmes. SOLAS has confirmed that the 2024 allocation to the Cavan and Monaghan ETB is of the order of €35.03 million, an increase from €34.15 million in 2023, again excluding capital expenditure. The allocation of this funding among the different FET programmes is a matter entirely for the individual ETB.

As both Deputies will be aware, there are representatives of the public, the community, employers and staff on the boards of ETBs, who act in an oversight and governance capacity.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister of State is now blaming the members of the board of the ETB, who, I can tell him, were not aware of this decision until after it had been made at an executive level. It was made at an executive level because there is clearly a funding gap, and we know about the funding gap because tutors and students were initially told their courses would be delayed. They were later told they had been indefinitely postponed. That sounds very much like an ETB scrambling to secure funding. The Minister of State should confirm whether the Cavan and Monaghan ETB has made an application to the Department seeking additional funding to resolve this situation.

I again ask him what we are supposed to say to these tutors who, if they secure alternative employment, will be lost to this sector. What do we say to those students who are midway through completing courses? I am dealing with one student who has completed their level 5 special needs assistant, SNA, course and had intended to begin level 6 this year. Again, if they cannot do that, they will seek alternative employment, and the Minister of State and his colleagues will stand up in the Dáil and decry the shortage of special needs assistants in our schools.

Has an application for funding been made and is it being considered? If that is the case, why is the Minister of State shrugging his shoulders as though this has nothing to do with him?

Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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The members of the board were not aware this was happening. I know there was a changeover of membership because of the local elections, but the members both before and after the elections were not aware. They had put forward proposals to get an overdraft and so on but were just shot down. The Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, intimated to me that some of the funding related to the large number of people who have come here from other countries and are receiving English classes, so there will be an additional cost for people coming in to live in the area and that should be taken into account. There are more people from other countries in Monaghan than there are in most other counties.

We need to help these people, and if that requires additional funding, the Government should step up and provide it. I have had contact from people who are involved in men's sheds, and we know about the important work that men's sheds do for men's mental health by bringing them together. They provide classes such as computer classes, cooking classes and so on, but they cannot provide any of them now without adult tutors being available through the ETB. This needs to be addressed immediately and the Government needs to stop washing its hands of it.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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Nobody is washing their hands of it. The Deputies may not want to take local responsibility or may think there should not be local responsibility, but it is my view the members of the Cavan and Monaghan ETB should be aware of this. It is their duty to be aware of what is happening in the organisation for which they have a corporate governance remit and oversight. Whether or not there was a changeover following the local elections, there is a continuum. It is their responsibility and they should reflect on that.

In respect of Deputy Carthy's question, I do not know in the here and now but we will find out whether Cavan and Monaghan ETB made an application. I just do not have that information to hand.