Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It also put something in my mind. The committee recently examined the issues of apprenticeships and work permits. In the course of our work we learned that this year there were 15,500 apprentices in Ireland, of whom only 2%, 400, were women. Two apprentices, a man and a woman, came before the committee. The man was a career changer, someone who had changed his career. He was 36 years old and the lady, 23. She was inspirational. She was a qualified electrician, having started with the ESB at the age of 19 years. She said that of the 200 trainees in her class, four were women, of whom two had dropped out. She was a qualified electrician at 23 years of age, having attended college for six months and found that it was not for her. We are bombarding Ms Heaney with ideas, but a more gender balanced approach to apprenticeships would surely be great to see. The position is changing slowly. There are many more apprenticeships available. As Deputy Neville said, they used to be in the wet trades such as plastering.