Ms Dearbháil Lawless:

While I am also a Wicklow woman, I am ashamed to say I do not have figures on County Wicklow specifically. More generally, however, what we put together was a costing around an increase in financial supports. We would suggest an increase of 55.1% to match inflation since 2002 and that would be an estimated cost of €9.71 million annually. However, while I understand this may not be feasible in certain ways, if we were to specifically address transport we could have a targeted approach whereby apprentices who are being asked to travel a further distance could be given a supplementary allowance to makes sure that is a sustainable programme of learning for them.

More generally, one of the things that is not taking place is accommodation provision to apprentices. While we see higher education students accessing accommodation, which is very important, there is a need for parity of esteem between further education and higher education. We recommend that locally as well to ensure everybody across the country has access to their training provision.

My colleague Mr. Thompson will be able to provide examples of what has worked really well internationally in supporting small and medium business enterprises to help them to provide things like equipment and to ensure that things are of the standard needed.