Mr. Aebhric McGibney:

It is interesting. When you get a presentation about the range of apprenticeships that are out there now and you look through the website, it has gone beyond the traditional construction and hairdressing and into much more specialised areas such as film and technology. Sometimes we need to revisit our language in referring to basic skills or whatever. I have seen some of the work of the OECD on future skills and one of the most valued jobs in the future could be a bicycle repair man. If we are all conscious of our contribution to the environment and how to deal with it, this could be a valued role that perhaps now, or certainly 20 years ago, would not have been seen as important a role. For us, it is also about how we adapt to what are valued roles going forward and, as part of that, how the range of apprenticeships out there are communicated both to companies and to people to make sure they are better understood and does not just cover the traditional skills. Those skills are still going to be important. In fact, they may even be more important than some of the ones I mentioned around AI and so on. It is worth having a look at that.

My background is in economics. We held an economics conference, the Dublin Economics Workshop, in Wexford in September. It is a fantastic place to visit and we are all conscious of the quality of public transport, particularly the railway down from Dublin. However, I make the point again that solving the issue with apprenticeships does not solve the wider problem of transport and travel. Investment is needed to develop both the rail service and other services, and not just in Dublin. I work with Dublin Chamber but we acknowledge that it is not just a Dublin issue. It is important we look at transport.

Bus Éireann was mentioned as well. Dublin Bus has a great scheme. I am also aware that Jim Meade, the CEO of Irish Rail who is just retiring, started his career as an apprentice. You can go right to the top, if you like. There are better ways to promote apprenticeships. You can go all the way to running a business if you start as an apprentice.