asked the Minister for Labour whether he is satisfied that the Youth Employment Agency has effective means at its disposal to influence the policies of other agencies; and whether a subcontracting relationship would make co-ordination more effective.

I am satisfied that the Youth Employment Agency have effective means at their disposal to influence the policies of other agencies involved in the area of employment, training and work experience for young people. The Youth Employment Agency Act, 1981, confers a statutory role on the agency for the co-ordination, development and integration of all schemes for the training and employment of young people. In practice the Youth Employment Agency influence the policies of other agencies through consultation with individual agencies and through submissions to the Minister for Labour regarding the annual allocation of the proceeds of the youth employment levy and proposals on programmes for the training and employment of young people. There have already been changes in a number of these programmes as a result of Youth Employment Agency recommendations.

As the agency were set up in 1982 their co-ordinating role is naturally still being developed and in fact one of the agency's priorities for 1984 is the strengthening of their co-ordinating function. The Government are fully committed to supporting the Youth Employment Agency and to ensuring their effectiveness in pursuing statutory functions.

As the agency in general look to existing manpower authorities, such as AnCO and the NMS, to implement programmes rather than themselves assuming an executive role, it could be said that a relationship similar to sub-contracting already exists between the agency and the other institutions involved. By largely freeing themselves from the demands and constraints of the day-to-day execution of programmes the agency are in a position to pursue actively their broader responsibility for the overall co-ordination, development and integration of youth employment and training schemes.

On a broader level, I may say that the Government are concerned about possible duplication and overlaps between the various agencies charged with responsibility for education and training. As a result the Minister of State at the Department of Labour was also assigned to the Department of Education in December 1983 and given additional responsibilities for the co-ordination of education and training activities. The Government subsequently decided that the Minister of State should, in conjunction with the Ministers for Labour and Education, prepare a number of agreed recommendations on issues arising as soon as possible. Already the Minister of State has met all the relevant organisations and has received written submissions from them. He hopes to be in a position to report to the Government in the near future.

Would the Minister not agree that the other semi-State bodies which are ultimately answerable to the Minister can, if they so wish, ignore the efforts of the YEA at co-ordination? Would he not agree that a formal sub-contracting arrangement whereby the YEA would specify the tasks to be done for which they would pay would be very different from the present system whereby the Youth Employment Agency in the case of AnCO make a contribution towards the cost of courses for training young persons under the age of 25?

One of the agency's priorities for 1984 is the strengthening of their co-ordinating function, which I think would meet the spirit of Deputy Bruton's supplementary question. The co-ordinating exercise which is being undertaken by his constituency colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of Labour, will strengthen the hand of the Government in ensuring that the wasteful duplication that perhaps occurred in the past can be eliminated to the benefit of young people.