Mr. Michael Hourihan:

I will respond to Deputy Catherine Martin's comments on the German Meister system. We floated this idea and discussed it with some organisations but it was not received favourably because it was felt it would result in the introduction of tiers in various trades, in other words, someone would become more qualified than someone else. We kept this in mind when developing new apprenticeships. To give an example, Cork Institute of Technology has received provisional approval for a level 7 apprenticeship in engineering services management. While this does not appear to be related to a trade, the idea is to develop middle management competencies for craftspersons Rather than having them become better at their trade, we give them a new set of skills to complement their trade. We are not taking the route of having a tiered system.

The development of guidance counsellors was mentioned. Work is needed in this area because in my experience guidance counsellors are very well informed about level 7 and 8 degree programmes but much less informed about apprenticeships. This issue needs to be addressed.

What is the answer? Other than sorting it out by getting everyone into a room, I am not sure, but something must be done to try to develop this.