John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I was absent earlier but I was here for the previous session. I have also read the submissions from our guests. I will return to some of the things I mentioned in the previous session. As a member of this committee, I certainly look at common themes arising at this time of the year. Earlier, the representatives from NERI put forward a view completely contrary to what we have just heard regarding subsidised housing and the help-to-buy scheme. The contribution from the NERI delegates came just 20 minutes ago and it is interesting to hear the arguments that have been made. Mr. Parlon's comment regarding the supply of housing having caught up with the ability to pay could make a headline. That paints a particular picture. The key word for me in that sentence is "ability". The people we do not count in the homeless figures or those waiting to buy houses number approximately 250,000 adults. They remain in the homes of their parents. Politicians had an opportunity during the recent election cycle to knock on doors. In my constituency, there was a house in Kingswood in Tallaght, a middle-class area, where a mother reported that all four of her adult children had returned to live at home. They are all working. One returned home to save for a deposit, another because of difficulties affording rent and the other two for similar, if more complex, reasons. People in the construction industry, particularly Mr. Parlon, need to take cognisance of cuckoo funds and this big push towards build-to-rent developments.

The witnesses' organisations need to help the Government and politicians to address this. I met a couple in Elder Heath, which is a fine new development in Kiltipper in Tallaght. They had €90,000 of a deposit for their home. They were paying €1,800 a month in rent but when they got their deposit and bought their house, they found their mortgage is €975 a month. That is a saving of almost €1,000 a month that was going into a black hole. The witnesses' organisations have as much a responsibility as policy makers in this regard.

I ran for election in a by-election in 2014. We were still emerging from the crash at that time and I remember reading a SIPTU paper on apprenticeships. It was very much ahead of its time in its thinking on them. It was produced in 2013 and now in 2019, only 4% of our apprentices are women. Some 39% of apprentices in Northern Ireland are women and the number of female-male apprentices in Scotland is almost equal. Mr. Lucey mentioned jobs in sectors such as hairdressing, front-desk jobs, tourism related business right across to sheet metal working which were flagged six years ago. Investment in apprenticeships is a theme that has emerged from a number of contributors who have appeared before the committee.

In Denmark, 11% of its workforce are apprentices, 45% of those on its apprenticeship programmes are women and apprenticeship programmes are open to people from the age of 18 to 60. There is constant retraining and developing of ability among its people to do work in the apprenticeship sectors.

This discussion has nudged forward the conversation on apprenticeships. I would be as passionate as Mr. Lucey about this issue. I am particularly struck when the leaving certificate results come out in August and the talk is all about the Central Applications Office, CAO, points system. Sean O'Rourke's programme and Pat Kenny's programme are full of it and only 30 seconds of those programmes are devoted to apprenticeships.

In the UK, an apprentice forum has been set up headed by a captain of industry, and its objective is that every parent in the UK would consider an apprenticeship for their child. We have become over-educated in Ireland. Those channels we assumed that traditionally catered for the student with physical skills started offering business and marketing degrees. I refer to the institutes of technology. Those were bullshit courses in terms of what they qualified people to do. The proof of the pudding was in the eating when those students emigrated; they found they were qualified for nothing. As Mr. Lucey said, the students who qualified as electricians, plumbers or carpenters and emigrated got a job the day they landed in another country, but we want to keep those people here. I would encourage the witnesses to keep banging this drum. It requires change on the part of parents and the education sector in terms of the way apprenticeships are viewed. When I was in school many of my classmates left post-intermediate certificate and went into apprenticeships and they studied alongside doing that. That does not happen any more. We laud the fact that people no longer leave school post-intermediate certificate. This is a channel that needs to be open. We are not bearing the fruits of that now because we do not have the necessary workforce. I am 100% behind the witnesses on this issue.

Unexpected revenue windfalls were mentioned. Interesting themes have been raised today. We heard from representatives from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, IFAC, and the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI. The witnesses before us are on the same page on that issue as the representatives of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU and the Nevin Economic and Research Institute, NERI. The representatives of IFAC said this must be squirrelled away into a prudence account. The representatives of NERI and ICTU have said there should be no once-off unrepeatable capital projects. The witnesses before us are saying the same that it should be earmarked for capital projects and to ensure the delivery of the national development plan. The way we should spend revenue windfalls has been a common theme for this committee for the past three years in advance of those budgets.

The witnesses have not commented on demographics. That theme arose in the context of the way our ageing population may affect the workforce. I am keen to develop apprenticeships. I will be pushing for that in the contribution this committee will make to the Minister. I welcome comments from the witnesses on those points.