Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)

That is absolutely agreed. I know it was mentioned earlier to my colleague Senator Harmon that it is a significant wage that will be made after two years. However, the ultimate barrier has been that two-year period for a long time now. It is quite disappointing. There is an extract from the action plan that mentions wages quite briefly. A few of my questions relate to this. Will the wage issue will be targeted in the next action plan? Will wages be reviewed and looked at? Everybody in the room who is representing a constituency will agree that the next action plan will have to focus on local authorities and commencing apprenticeships for local authorities. I have one question for the representatives from SOLAS as well. Are they satisfied with the range of trades that are providing apprenticeships now? If they are not, is that because the focus is towards the market rather than towards State agencies and services? I said in my opening contribution at the start of this joint committee that we all know it is nearly impossible now, through a local authority, to get a plumber, a carpenter or an electrician to solve an issue, particularly in local authority housing. It is extremely difficult. If you contact the local authority and the director of services, they will tell you it does not have the staff. Will there be a focus towards apprenticeships for local authorities? It was always the case. Instead, what we are doing now is we are appointing third parties to do the work that we could possibly provide within our local authorities. Is SOLAS satisfied with the range of trades that are providing apprenticeships?