It has emerged that the Government has not made any application for European Social Funds for FÁS for almost ten months.
Following an EU audit last November, the European Commission said that, in order to protect taxpayers, it wanted issues to be resolved before further funds were requested or paid.
RTÉ News has learnt that the problems relate to training courses carried out by private operators. The European Commission is reviewing some of the €600m allocated to FÁS in the last ten years.
Under the European Social Fund 'human capital investment programme' 2007-2013, FÁS has been allocated €211m in funding for training and education. It is one of main sources of EU funding for FÁS.
But the Commission has confirmed to RTÉ that no applications have been made by the Irish Authorities since November 2009 for this funding. An EU audit of FÁS in November last year identified problems relating to training courses run by private contractors.
As a result, the commission is also reviewing previous applications for FÁS for ESF funds between 2000-2006 as it believes similar problems may have arisen. €407m was allocated to FÁS for this period.
Meanwhile, Fine Gael's Education spokesman, Fergus O'Dowd, has claimed that hundreds of people who completed some FÁS courses have not received their certificates because of issues relating to some private contractors.
He said the examination and certification of FÁS courses should be taken over by the VEC network. There was no comment from FÁS this afternoon.
Earlier, Labour's Ruairi Quinn called for FÁS to be closed down.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen said the board of FÁS would consider a strategic review of its operations at a meeting next week. He said the results would be brought by the Minister for Education to the Government.
Speaking in Co Offaly, Mr Cowen said there were legacy issues from the past which were being dealt with, but the company had a new board and chief executive.
