Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair and Deputy Farrell. I have two or three brief questions. I am really more interested in hearing what the Minister of State has to say rather than giving a long spiel. Initially, he mentioned investing in our people and talent and rightfully so. He mentioned that we are going to go from 13,000 to 16,000 places for craft apprentices. Is there any factoring in of a review of the payments that go to craft apprentices, particularly when they are perhaps progressing through the different stages of phase 2 off-the-job training? Is that factored into that growth?

My second question is also about apprentices. The Minister of State might give us an outline of the waiting lists for block release. We were told that Covid-19 was responsible for the backlog that was initially there. How we are going about tackling that? Is that waiting list reducing?