Mr. Andrew Brownlee:

I thank the Deputy. I will try to take the points in turn. The Deputy is absolutely right that waiting lists are a significant worry and concern for SOLAS. As I mentioned in my opening statement, training centres and institutions provide the off-the-job training and they have been effectively closed for nine of the past 12 months. My understanding is that at the end of March we had more than 4,000 people waiting to get onto phase 2 training, which is the start of the pipeline. They are waiting to go into training provided by education and training boards. At the end of March, the number for phase 4 was just under 2,000 and for phase 6 it was 1,500. It is a significant problem. We know how urgent an issue it is. We know how important it is for apprentices and employers. We are absolutely committed to getting apprentices back into the training they need and deserve as soon as possible.

The Deputy is right that this was an emerging problem before Covid. At that point, we had approximately 1,000 people waiting to get into phase 2 training, which is the first step in the pipeline. The reason for this was pretty simple. The number of craft apprentices had been expanding rapidly in recent years and there was a capacity issue regarding ability to keep up. The issue now is that the waiting lists are four times that level. It is very much a Covid-driven problem but I accept there was an emerging problem before Covid happened. There is definitely a clear action plan in place to address it. We are going to expand capacity with the help of the Department. A capital investment of €20 million will be made in further education and training and higher education. This will target in particular the areas of greatest strain, which are plumbing and electrical. The good news is that we have apprentices back on site thanks to great work with the TUI, SIPTU, education and training boards, institutes of technology and technological universities. We have had to do this in a safe and socially distanced way so there are capacity constraints. They are finally back on site and this will help us address the throughput.

We continue to deliver online the components that we can as part of the training package because this can speed up the apprenticeship journey. We are also looking at using competency assessments to see whether we can progress the apprentices. We are working with the unions to see what flexibility and overtime arrangements can be put in place to deliver apprenticeships outside of the traditional training periods because this will be essential to move things forward. This is the position on waiting lists.

The unified model of craft apprenticeships is very much part of the new action plan. The Deputy is right that a plan is set out whereby SOLAS would effectively migrate out of the co-ordinating provider role for craft apprenticeships over the five-year lifetime of the plan. The thinking behind this plan is that there has always been a bit of uneasiness between the roles in terms of management and oversight of the system and being a provider of education and training within the system. There is a bit of a conflict about which we have always been concerned. Another issue we need to take account of is that we have education and training providers, including education and training boards, institutes of technology and technological universities, with their own very well established quality assurance arrangements. In a way, they should be very well placed to help reform-----