Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Last week, the issue of skills shortages came up. The Department has sort of a split responsibility here. It has responsibility in respect of work permits and that regime and it is the key to the take up of apprenticeships, even though it is not delivering them. I would be interested to hear the Department’s strategy. The big cry from small business was that they cannot get the skills. They could grow much more rapidly but there is a constraint. I think there was a call for a more integrated approach to this than we have, even though there is a huge range of new options out there.