Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I have a few comments and questions. First, with regard to apprenticeships, I welcome what was said about broadening the demographics. What I have heard from many people is that it is the same families and the same regions in Ireland, and, indeed, the same regions around Europe, that are feeding into the same skills sets, and that it is not broadening out enough. In the UK over a short number of years, there was a quadrupling of the number of women in some of the key construction trades. It was starting from a very low base but it went up significantly. One can see in some other countries that there is a lot more female participation in particular trades where perhaps traditionally people thought there was a justifiable or some type of reason for a gender difference. That is not the case in those countries.

The issue of job security is a major challenge, given all the uncertainties in it. Do the witnesses have views on anything that could be done to improve that? There is no question that it is well-rewarded and well-paid work compared with some other areas, but what are the witnesses' thoughts about what can be done to improve job security?