Dr. Mary-Liz Trant:

The Senator's first question was on the cost for employers and block release apprenticeships. A number of the new apprenticeships use that block release model with others using the one day off one. We have been getting the feedback from the consortia on this and what is emerging is that where there are apprenticeships based upon block release, employers struggle to backfill and to pay the salary. They have asked about what can be done and we are going to look at that feedback.

In regard to the apprenticeships that are four days on, one day off, they have told that it is not an issue and that they can manage it. I suppose there is a mix but we are taking that feedback on board to ensure that if there is an issue, we are considering it. Obviously, that will feed into any policy considerations by the Department.

On the legislation, when this whole project got going we had the 1967 Act. It was very much about saying that we can draft new legislation or we can use the legislation we have, which is what we have done.

Interestingly, it has, by and large, served us fairly well. If we were looking at new legislation, it would be different but the existing legislation is working. There are a few small tweaks that we need to do on the kinds of apprenticeships that are going to be introduced next year in the agricultural, horticultural and fisheries areas. For the moment, it is working.

On resources, we have expanded in SOLAS. We have expanded out to the regions as well to the education and training boards, ETBs, to support apprenticeships. Any requests we have made have been granted, which has been very supportive.

I will make a couple of points on the shortages issue and sectors struggling to find skilled workers.

To give a couple of examples of sectors struggling to find skilled workers, Ms Dunne mentioned chefs; we now have more than 150 chef apprentices in the system. We had none this time last year, by the end of the year we had 24 and we have 130 this year. That is where apprenticeship is immediately meeting a need in a particular industry that we know has been crying out for skilled workers. A new chef's charter has been developed by the chef network to drive the image within the industry. That is very positive. We are working very closely with the Restaurants Association of Ireland and the Irish Hotels Federation on that to make the chef apprenticeships – there will be four by this time next year – really part of how that industry is meeting those skills needs.

The council has recently been looking at one of those niche construction areas, roofing, and there will be a recommendation to develop an apprenticeship in roofing to meet the need. There are opportunities for flexibility in how we respond. On the sales point that Mr. Donohoe made, there is a sales apprenticeship in development and part of the feedback that consortium has given is that the apprenticeship will be very important but they would like to develop an add-on in sales in a range of industries, whether technological or financial, where somebody who is really good technically and is interested in a sales role could add that on and have that role in their company. The reaction of the council was that was a really interesting way to respond in a horizontal manner to a skills need. Our sense is that there is a great deal of opportunity and potential that we will be proactively pursuing in the coming months.