Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have a few brief questions. I am a daughter of a plumber and a sister of a plumber. Trades are all I ever knew. No one in my house went to college; they went to a trade. I have had to support people whose families were not born in Ireland and the difficulties in them getting the apprenticeships, and we succeeded. I have been living in Louth. My family have been living in Louth for 200 years. We are there. We know people. We are in the trades. It was easy for people to come and go and ask for trades and get their apprenticeships. Are there any structures within the witnesses' organisations to support a prospective apprentice who is asking how they go about getting their employer? It is clear you register, but to get your employer, to get those forms signed and to get your work can be hugely difficult, particularly for the disadvantaged, for women, people who were not born here or whose families were not born here, and people with disabilities. Particularly in those three categories, can the witnesses point to supports that would really support them and things that we can recommend at committee level so that the apprenticeships model can do better?