John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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I was making a note to myself there to follow up on an aspect of it. Deputy Brophy and I are not party colleagues but we were colleagues on South Dublin County Council and both of us now represent the same constituency. My sense was that public bodies, State companies, semi-State companies and local authorities have been slow on the bidding part, yet in 20 seconds one can think of scores of areas where apprenticeship programmes would be not just appropriate but also incredibly useful. That is something we can push for. It is disheartening to hear that the private sector has been driving the bids. It is almost as if the State has said: "That's for you guys out there. It's not for us."

I am interested in the area of international education. With Brexit there will only be five or six countries left in the world that can position themselves to offer this. It is a potentially lucrative area, but we have been slow to respond. A number of moves are being made on it but I am asking Mr. O'Brien to say whether or not he sees potential in this area. If so, what kind of potential is there? I have scratched the surface by meeting some of the players to try to find out about it. They maintain that if this area is driven from Government it could reap huge and significant rewards for the country. I just wonder what Mr. O'Brien's view is on that.