This year FÁS registered 6,000 fewer apprentices than it did two years ago. Next year, it will be worse. The number of apprentices in construction will be down from 4,500 to 1,000 while the number in the electrical trades will be down from 2,500 to 1,000. It has been hard at the best of times for a young man or woman to get an apprenticeship. It will be harder next year. Many in current apprenticeships are being told they cannot finish because of the downturn in the economy.

Apprenticeship is the core business of FÁS. Today, many young people who cannot get an apprenticeship or finish it will ask themselves what on earth were the top brass in FÁS doing looking at the US national space centre in Florida. Do we have apprentice astronauts? Were they in the nail bar trying to register apprentices for carpentry?

For ingrown toenails.

Chiropodists.

Wheelbarrows.

I do not believe the Taoiseach has any sense of the public anger at the lavish extravagance and splurging of taxpayers' moneys involved. Nor do I believe he has any sense of the significant unease that this whole episode has caused for the majority of public servants who work conscientiously and for whom this carry-on is exposing them to being scapegoated and ridiculed.

The Taoiseach is a former Minister for Labour. There are few people in this House who have the understanding of the consequences that he has of the relationship between FÁS and the parent Department and Minister. Will he deal with what we have heard over the past two days with some urgency? It is not acceptable that some process will work it out and it will all disappear into the ether again. There is much anger about this. We need to hear from the Government what action will be taken.

Will the Taoiseach agree that FÁS and its top executives would be better serving the country in dealing with the growing crisis with apprenticeships? If we do not register apprenticeships now, we will not have the trades in four years' time when hopefully we will be through the current economic difficulties. Would it not be better for FÁS top executives to stay in Ireland dealing with the apprenticeship problem rather than gallivanting around the world at the taxpayers' expense?

I understand the legitimate anger and concern that people have expressed on some of the issues brought to public attention in recent days and times regarding this organisation. I can reply to the Deputy's questions with the same forcefulness. The apprenticeship situation derives from the sectors themselves in respect of numbers taken on and the numbers which go through the system. Let us be fair to the organisation. In that core issue, the interaction between FÁS and industry has been exemplary. FÁS has been in the position to provide the training and certification necessary for the doubling of the construction industry workforce over the past number of years, from 125,000 to 250,000 people at its height. That was accommodated by FÁS and the apprenticeship programmes it conducted. In fairness to that aspect of the situation, let that be said.

With regard to the specific issues raised here, whether regulations that apply to travel and subsistence for bodies and Departments were transgressed, these are matters that must be reported on with some urgency by the chairman to the Tánaiste as a result of the revelations of recent days. That should, and will, be done.

I am explaining that an examination by the Comptroller and Auditor General of wider issues, relating to management processes and the corporate services department of the organisation, has been requested by the Tánaiste on foot of the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on public procurement issues in the organisation. I am aware of that situation and we must get to the bottom of it and have accountability. That process is in place, generally in respect of what is done by the Committee of Public Accounts and the Comptroller and Auditor General and in respect of the report to the Tánaiste on these matters that will be forthcoming.