Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Lawlor raised a point and he is right. Nearly every business that one visits - it certainly applies to those I have visited in recent months since I took up this role - has a need for certain skills and can create jobs. What is important is that through the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and the Department of Education and Skills we respond to this and ensure that we put the appropriate courses in place, whether for apprenticeships, traineeships or on job placement. We must design courses around what companies need to produce the necessary jobs. We must have general education but we also have to ensure that we fill the vacant jobs that exist and those we know will come downstream in six or 12 months time.

Those in industry are up for the game and it is important for them to get involved. We are keen to see far more apprenticeships. There will be a public call for this later on in the autumn from the apprenticeship council. It is important that industry responds and gets involved because it is a two-way thing. Most people in industry are interested in that.

I know of one very good story involving a Springboard course being turned around in four weeks. A large company - I will not mention the university - came to the university with a suggestion at the start of July. Only four weeks later it was turned around and there was an up-and-running Springboard course to deliver the skills into the company in question. That will result in approximately 300 jobs being created because word goes back to the parent company in the United States. That is what we are trying to do. We want to repeat that and have that across the board.

Deputy Lawlor is right in that it means both Departments have to respond and work closer together as well. There is a good deal we can do in this area and I am looking forward to working with the committee. I know it is an area the committee has worked on before and it is something we can certainly dig into.