Mr. Adrian Cummins:

I see apprenticeships as a way to get people into training and upskill our workforce. As it stands, the model for new apprenticeships like ours, which trains chefs, does not work for the employer. The employer is treated unequally to his or her counterparts in other traditional trades. If a business has to take on an apprentice while he or she is in college, for example, the business has to pay the apprentice while he or she is off site pursuing education. Other traditional trades are subsidised by the State. That is not right. We have raised it with SOLAS and the Department of Education and Skills, now superseded by a new Department. That needs to be fixed. Businesses will not take on apprentices in the middle of an economic crisis if they are penalised from day one.