Mr. Peter Rigney:

Deputy McConalogue asked about the number of apprentices in particular disciplines. The defining feature of the apprenticeship system is that the number of apprentices in the system is the number of boys and girls whom employers wish to employ. Therefore, it is protected against oversupply. The working committee on apprenticeship was faced with two difficult issues which we could not solve. In an ideal world there should be a system whereby somebody employs a base stock of apprentices to prevent an under-correction. However, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform would have kittens if this were brought any further. Conversely, at the height of the cycle there should be a way set a maximum, but it would have taken a brave person to tell a builder at the height of the boom that he or she could not take on any more carpenters or joiners because there would be a surplus. One would probably have ended up in the High Court in a case taken on the right to earn a living. These issues exist.

Deputy Ó Snodaigh asked about the school year. I am on the board of Skillnets, which is the training networks initiative. It deals mainly with private-sector trainers. Very little training is done in July, August and December. To the best of my knowledge there are no live proposals to change the school year. The differences may be more apparent than real. An issue that might arise is why every course must start in September. Perhaps some courses could start in January. At present, if somebody is made unemployed in January, he or she must wait until September. This issue might need to be resolved.

If I can be so bold as to make a suggestion to the committee, if it wants to go into detail and lift the bonnet on the sector, it should invite Seamus McGuinness and Dr. John Sweeney, both of whom have written reports, to come before it. Seamus McGuinness was the lead researcher on the ESRI report which was mentioned, and Dr. John Sweeney produced a report for the National Economic and Social Council. They would give the committee two sometimes different views, which is a good thing, on how the sector works.