Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. Go raibh maith agaibh as teacht os comhair an choiste. I thank the witnesses for coming before the committee and their opening statements. They were very interesting and it is very much appreciated.

I will start with the Department first. I have an interest in local authorities and their use of apprentices and that kind of thing, especially given the really bad situation we have with some of the social housing stock standards. We have really bad issues with mould and broken things, such as windows and doors and that kind of thing has a huge impact on people's lives. Equally, we also have a big issue with footpaths, which sounds very basic but it is fundamental if people, especially elderly people, want to walk to the shop or that kind of thing.

About four weeks ago, I wrote to all 31 local authorities to ask how many apprentices they currently have. This included both craft and consortia apprenticeships. The answers have been slow coming back. To be fair, I do know local authorities are extremely busy and they lost a lot of staff during the crisis and all that. Only three local authorities have come back to me with craft apprenticeships. I identified only eight apprentices among them. There are four in vehicle mechanics and four in construction plant fitting. I was not surprised because Galway City Council and Galway County Council are in my constituency and I deal with them. It is disappointing in a sense and maybe it is something we need to look at because they are not doing carpentry apprenticeships, electrical, plumbing, bricklaying or anything like that. We could do so much more and so much better and it is something we could look at because it would be a really good way to go, both for people who want to get that training - no matter where they are in the country - but also for the housing stock we have. It seems like a no-brainer to do that.

The European Commission just produced a report which deals with things such as job guarantees, apprenticeship guarantees and that kind of thing. It is something I have an interest in. Are there any plans in relation to the roll-out of more apprenticeships within our local authorities to deal with the issues we have to deal with regarding the housing stock and its turnaround times? Has the Department looked at the apprenticeship guarantee the European Commission published?