Fás will be replaced with a new agency called Solas.

Jobseekers will be forced to take on hi-tech courses with a new training agency, or risk losing their benefits.

Solas will be the State’s new further education authority after the Government said it will disband Fas, which became associated with dated courses and ended up mired in controversy over its spending of taxpayers’ money.

The new agency will teach modern high-end skills that can be used in industries like pharmaceuticals and information technology.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn said under the new regime, unemployment benefits claimants will have to sign up to further education classes at local colleges or take on unpaid work experience.

“The labour market will not be passive anymore,” he said.

“If you lose your job, sadly, and if you apply for the benefits to which you are entitled, you will be asked to go on a course or two to do something that’s appropriate to your age and to your education profile.

“And that could very well be to engage in some form of community employment, and if you don’t accept that activation measure then there will be a financial penalty.”

He added: “We are saying ‘yes, you are entitled to your benefits but you must in turn take up a course’.”

The courses will be offered mostly by vocational education committees (VECs), which themselves are to be reformed.

Instead of the 33 old VECs there will be 16 “bigger, more efficient” local education and training boards.

Mr Quinn said the old system offered training from a variety of authorities in an irregular way. Solas will come under the control of the Department of Education and Skills.

Former Fas training centres and most regional staff are to be transferred to the VECs, according to Mr Quinn, while staff from Fas headquarters will transfer to Solas.

Michael Moriarty, general secretary of the Irish Vocational Education Association, said the reform was needed, but he added: “A lot of work remains to be done to see that the proposals are implemented efficiently and effectively”

Mr Moriarty said the success of the new system will depend greatly on the relationship between Solas and the VECs.

The Irish government has threatened to send in bailiffs after only two of 18 religious orders responsible for horrific child abuse moved to breach a compensation shortfall of up to €375 million.

Despite the Catholic Church agreeing to cover half the €1.36 billion bill for clerical child abuse claims, the congregations have refused to budge.

In the clearest signal yet that the Government is determined to force payment, Education Minister Ruairi Quinn is to pressure the orders to sign up to laws allowing the state to seize assets.

The minister said he was disappointed at offers made since the 2009 Ryan report revealed the shocking extent of decades-long sexual, physical and psychological abuse of the most vulnerable in institutions.

“The congregations’ total offers fall well short, by several hundred million, of the €680 million contribution they should bear towards the cost of institutional residential child abuse,” he said.

“In April, I called on the orders to consider handing over appropriate school infrastructure as a way to make progress towards the 50:50 target contribution. I reiterate that call now.”

The Department of Education said the 18 orders of priests and nuns offered €128 million in cash, property and counselling services as part of a controversial indemnity deal dating back to 2002.

This was increased in 2009 to €348.5 million after the Ryan report called for the 50:50 split between state and church – a cash pot of more than €100 million which was boosted by property which the orders valued at €235.5 million.

Mr Quinn has warned the congregations that the state has use for only a quarter of the total properties offered — 12 sites, which the Government now values at just €60 million.

The lack of offers from the congregations, combined with a the property crash, has created a massive shortfall in the compensation fund, running to €375.5 million.

“Of the properties offered to the State, only 12 have been identified as of potential immediate benefit to the State and these will be pursued,” Mr Quinn said.

The minister said he wants congregations to agree to allow the state to identify assets and property such as schools, nursing homes, playing fields and land and legally take possession of them.

There would be blocking orders on transferring title without prior consent of the Department, he said.

Officials said congregations are also being asked to transfer properties currently leased by the state or of specific interest.

“I believe that this approach affords the congregations involved the opportunity to shoulder their share of the costs of responding to the horrendous wrongs suffered by children in their care, while at the same time, recognising the legitimate legacy of their contribution to Irish education,” he said.

Mr Quinn also said a €110m trust will also be set up to fund the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund to support the victims of institutional abuse.

The offers of property include 49 Christian Brothers’ playing fields; Presentation Sisters’ St Bernard’s Group Home, Fethard, Tipperary; Sisters of Our Lady of Charity childcare facility at Gracepark Rd, Drumcondra, Dublin; and Sisters of St Clare primary school, Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan.

The Sisters of Mercy offered several schools St Joseph’s VEC College, Carrick on Suir; the Adult Education Centre, Waterford; land at Convent Road, Cahir, Seamount Convent and College, Kinvara, Galway Scoil Mhuire Secondary and Mercy Primary School, Ennistymon, Clare; and the Old Primary School and Hall, Trim, Meath.

The order also put forward the McAuley Centre, Kells, Meath; Beaumont Convalescent Home and grounds, north Dublin; 33 acres at the National Rehabilitation Hospital Dun Laoghaire; and St Anne’s Lenaboy Castle, Taylor’s Hill, Galway.

The Government said it will propose long-term option on further Sisters of Mercy properties including two convents in Cork, two primary schools in Mayo, and schools in Longford, Leitrim and Meath.

Mr Quinn has written to the 18 orders with his response to their offers and asked for meetings to pursue the massive shortfall.

The Government said it has only received €20.6m in cash to date.