Mr. Neil McDonnell:

This is a sectoral problem and it differs in each one. On a separate committee, I have had feedback from the chairwoman of the Hair and Beauty Industry Confederation about the support for apprentices when they are away in college or doing other training, and not on-the-job training. This represents a significant financial burden and drag on a service business. The service businesses are the worst affected because, not alone is the business paying a person who is not working on the premises, but, in some cases, it is paying someone else to fill in for that person.

If that burden is going to be there in a tight-margin service business, the temptation is not going to be to take the apprentice through. It is going to be to hire someone else's apprentice. It is a lose-lose for everyone if we do not do that. The funding arrangements pre-2016 were higher. I will send the committee our previous submission on that.