Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We have talked a lot about meat factory employees and employers. It is an important issue. The witnesses before the committee today are not here to represent meat factory workers and employers. Perhaps, if the issue is so important to some people in the committee, we need to bring their representatives in separately because it feels somewhat unfair that IBEC is being required to defend what they are doing at this time. I do not know if that is what its role is. It is an important issue to me but I am not sure if that is the purpose of today's meeting. IBEC covers many different strands. It is good that the issue has been raised. Perhaps we need to examine the issue as a committee and bring other people in specifically to discuss those issues. While there may be a small cohort of people who are mistreating workers in some ways, trying to sort it out today with IBEC is not going to happen.

What is the issue? I want to solve problems instead of just talking about them. What is stopping builders, tradesmen and employers in general from taking on apprentices if there is a shortage? Is the issue insurance? Are they not getting enough guidance? What can we do to increase the numbers? We want 10,000 apprenticeships. Why are there are grey sites? What is stopping builders and tradesmen from taking apprentices on? We need to examine the delay and what we can do. Do we need to provide an incentive? Does the Government need to get involved to say that employers will not be liable for apprenticeships? I am sure most builders have on-site insurance, for example. What is the problem? What can we do to solve it? I would like to discuss how we get to 10,000 apprenticeships. I would love to hear the witnesses' input on that.