Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I refer back to the matter of apprenticeships. As part of the SOLAS contribution, it was stated that the programme for Government and the Action Plan for Education contained a commitment to a cumulative 31,000 enrolments in apprenticeships between 2016 and 2020. I am concerned about how confident SOLAS is about reaching that figure given that the targets set out in the Action Plan on Apprenticeships were missed in 2016 and 2017 and it appears they will be missed again in 2018. The Action Plan set out a target of 82 apprentices in new courses in 2016 and that was not met. There was a target of 800 registrations on new courses in 2017 but only 335 were achieved. In 2018, it was estimated that 1,500 would take part in new courses but the figure was 509. Dr. Trant said it was more than 800 and I would be interested to know where that came from. There is only one month left in 2018. Clearly, something is going wrong. I would be interested to know exactly what SOLAS feels has gone wrong and why people have not come in. Senator Davitt said there was probably not enough contact with employers and I echo that view. I agree with Mr. Donohoe that there should probably be a central portal. It would provide people who do not know businesspeople access to apprenticeships. That is an issue in particular in areas of urban deprivation where people might not know a business person to approach. The targets are being missed. Will anyone take responsibility for that?

I raise also the issue of the rate of participation of females, as mentioned earlier, and people with disabilities. It is astonishing to think that there are only 319 female apprenticeships out of 13,921, which is only 2%. In addition, I was told by SOLAS that its records indicate that there are 371 people with disabilities, which is approximately 2% as well. These are unacceptable figures. What plans are afoot to address the participation rates of both females and people with disabilities?