Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair and the witnesses for coming in front of the committee. Obviously this is something we have been looking at for some time and it is important to acknowledge that we are seeing changes in relation to qualifying criteria for students from the North coming to the South. That is welcome and it is positive that the witnesses have had a major focus in relation to this. My party colleague, Conor Murphy, has recently been appointed Minister for the Economy and as it is something he also wants to focus on, it is really good that there is so much concentration on it.

I will start with Mr. Brownlee regarding the apprenticeship aspect. I note he said he wants to build stronger links between both systems, share ideas and best practice and a positive that we can see from this is there can be the sharing of ideas and best practice. What are the differences at the moment between curriculums North and South for craft apprentices in particular and how much interaction is there between the two? How close are they to each other? How often are they updated in the North in comparison to the South, if he is aware of that? I had a recent parliamentary question which showed that it has been quite a bit of time since the curriculum has been updated in the South. I am interested in that and building on those links.