Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 1 October 2025
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science
Apprenticeships: Discussion
2:00 am
Mr. Ian Talbot:
Yes and no. It goes back to the conundrum, for example, about wind energy. There is fantastic opportunity in wind energy. There are organisations like ESB Networks as well. It depends where the next storm hits, but opportunities arise from that for learning. We have to be clearer in where we are going to be investing as a country. We need the national development plan, Project Ireland 2040 and the winter programme for upgrading the grid. All these things need to happen to provide that sense of critical mass and scale that will have employers saying we now need to invest, whether it is Mayo for wind energy, Ringaskiddy, Cork or Cobh for the port that is coming in. It is those sort of things. Going back to Deputy Connolly's point, it is not looking for government to be paying businesses for everything, but it is difficult without understanding where the Government is going to be investing some of this big infrastructure stuff as that is where most of the apprentice opportunities are going to lie.
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