Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My first point relates to apprenticeships. We need to reach our goals in increasing the number of apprentices in all trades but we also need to have better pay and conditions and better security. Apprenticeships in countries such as Germany are much more highly valued than they are here. College is seen as the number one goal when people are leaving school, with apprenticeships valued less. I come from a working-class area and lots of my friends have risen to the top of their profession through the apprenticeship system in various sectors. Apprenticeship is particularly important in the construction sector. The wet trades are hard trades. There is talk about moving the age of retirement to 67, 68 and beyond but there is no way someone can continue plastering at that age. We have to make apprenticeships attractive and encourage people to get involved by having proper terms and conditions and by respecting apprentices.

An issue that we have not touched on today is the fact that the quickest way to increase capacity is to turn around vacant properties. Doing that takes fewer materials and less time and the carbon footprint is lower. It is an easy win and I invite our guests to comment on that. We have between 60,000 and 90,000 vacant properties, depending on whether one uses data from GeoDirectory or the latest census. They can be brought back into use quickly to increase supply.