Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all of our guests. Their contributions have been very informative.

It seems that the response given to every problem is that the solution lies in education. Brexit is unique in the sense that it is problem and we do not know the dynamics of it. Nobody will know exactly what is ahead of us until the final deal is done and the papers have been signed. What will be the ramifications of a hard Brexit from the point of view of the ETBI in the context of the training centres and apprenticeships? If the SMEs, the farming sector and food businesses are hit as hard as some commentators have predicted, they will need to diversify or their employees will need to be retrained or moved into new areas. Have the witnesses considered what new types of apprenticeships and training may be needed? Have they considered new directions in training and education? I do not want to sound pessimistic but we, as a committee, must ask a wide range of questions and try to cover every angle. We all hope for the best but we must plan ahead. The committee must include in its report some contingency plans to counteract a worst-case scenario.

Yesterday, the committee met representatives from local authorities in the Border region, North and South. They conveyed a lot of what Ms McHugh said about education. Although education was not their specific topic of conversation, they mentioned how students and workers traverse the Border. They also mentioned the possibility of job losses in SMEs located along the Border area and a possible loss of INTERREG funding. From the point of view of education, reskilling, upskilling and introducing new and unheard of industries to the area, have the delegations focused on or carried out preparation or planning for a hard Brexit?

Ms King has said that she represents workers North and South. She also mentioned that there is a race to the bottom in terms of companies trying to do things as cheaply and as efficiently as possible. Will companies in the North have to become self-sufficient if the UK is isolated and cannot put trade deals in place? From her experience of representing workers in the North and the South, is Ms King of the view that workers' rights, terms and conditions will take a hammering? Where do the unions stand on this matter? Are they trying to keep ahead of the posse? Has ICTU taken steps to avoid such a scenario?

On education, Ms McHugh mentioned the ETBs and how their training centres use City and Guilds a lot. Could there be a problem with the acceptance or recognition of awards in the two different jurisdictions? Representatives from IMO told us this morning that it was very fearful that for doctors, there was a possibility that an EU qualification might not be accepted in the UK. I thought it was a bit dramatic but they seemed very strong on this, or that, vice versa, someone training in the UK post-Brexit might not have their qualification recognised or accepted in the EU. Could that also be a problem, North and South?