Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, would completely disagree with Deputy Burke on this one. However, he makes a fair point. There are 27- and 28-month waiting lists for some of those schemes. It is clear there are workforce pipeline issues and I think there is a policy issue in this regard. I do not have a problem asking in our letter for the view of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on this matter. As Deputies, we need to raise the issue in the Dáil as well to try to flag its importance. I and many others have raised the need for more apprenticeships, not just in the traditional trades but right across the board, which would be more like the German model. People should be able to learn a trade instead of having to do degrees in third level institutions that might not get them into employment as quickly.

That is not to play one off the other. It is recognised that there has been a shortage of apprenticeships in this State. We missed the opportunity from 2008 to 2019 or 2020 to start doing this in a serious way. I do not know the figures off the top of my head but I know there has been some improvement. We can include that issue and flag it with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. From a public expenditure point of view, we can ask what consideration the Department gives to workforce planning and pipelines in terms of people being trained when it makes decisions to allocate money.