Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his presentation. I start by welcoming the positive developments and changes to make things easier for students availing of grants, with the travel distance being cut. More students can now qualify for a full grant. The maintenance grant has been increased by €200, along with the income threshold being increased by €1,000 for the standard grant. They are all welcome measures. The cost of living is affecting everybody, including our students. We all know that quite well.

I have raised my main concern with the Minister before, which relates to the student earnings cap of €4,500. I feel this is posing difficulties to students, who cannot work many hours. They want to work and do not want to have the burden of their education fall on their family who are also grappling with the cost of living. It would be good to increase this cap incrementally. I know it cannot be done all at once. It has not been increased since 2016 and I think it needs to be done. It is possibly a lost opportunity. I made a submission on this issue to the steering group review. I know the Union of Students in Ireland also feels strongly about this issue. It said it is an obstacle. I have met many employers in the hospitality sector. They cannot fill job vacancies because they cannot source enough students to fill the vacancies because of the cap. The cap affects the employer and the local economy too. It would be progressive to incrementally increase this in budget 2023. I called for this when I spoke during Leaders' Questions last week.

I acknowledge the long overdue positive developments with apprenticeships and traineeships. We have a serious gap in apprentices to fill. In order to initiate change at second level and make sure that apprenticeships and traineeships are valued, especially apprenticeships, is there a plan to roll out a programme to bring everybody on board, including career guidance teachers who, through no fault of their own, were focusing more on the academic side than on apprenticeships? It would be beneficial. We have listened today to some fantastic young students who were apprentices. They certainly gave us insight. If those young people went into schools to interact and talk with students, it would be a positive development. We should bring the whole school community on board, including teachers, especially career guidance teachers. It would initiate a change in our way of thinking about what constitutes education. Craftsmanship should be highly valued, as it is in Germany. Apprenticeships in Ireland should be no different.