Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

My apologies. I was in the Chamber and missed the witnesses' earlier contributions, which I welcome. I have one or two questions on the issues where a lot of streamlining is needed. To the witnesses' knowledge, are the Northern Irish or British apprenticeship systems more successful more successful than ours? How are their systems working vis-à-vis ours?

Mr. Talbot mentioned specialist centres of excellence for skills. In the Cathaoirleach's ETB area, a specialist centre for manufacturing was established by the Louth-Meath Education and Training Board. Is Mr. Talbot thinking of something similar in relation to the skills side?