Professor Diarmuid Hegarty:

I thank Dr. Ryan for expressing that point about the Irish language far more eloquently than I tried to do. I will address two points made by Deputy Pádraig O’Sullivan, that of apprenticeships and then the fabricator.

On apprenticeships, the question asked was what we need to do to encourage them. We must look at what we are investing in the various streams. If a student is doing four years in university or any higher education institution now, then typically we are talking about investing approximately €11,000, on average, for each year, depending on the specific course undertaken. The student pays about €3,000 of that cost, or a little more on occasion. The State, then, is investing about €8,000 a year and approximately €32,000 over the duration of a higher education course.

If the State wants to promote apprenticeships, then it must invest more in them. One impediment limiting the number of apprenticeships is that employers must sign contracts for a minimum of two years, which is the shortest time for an apprenticeship programme, and probably for an average of three to four years. Employers must make that commitment, and getting enough employers to make such a commitment in this marketplace is probably easier than it would be in a different labour marketplace. The chief executive of SOLAS has suggested that the State should pay for the day that apprenticeship students spend in education each week because employers get no benefit from their employees on that day. It would also be possible to argue that employers are getting limited benefit from their apprentices in that first year and the State should also consider a subvention of the cost of apprenticeships in that first year, bearing in mind that employers are making a four-year commitment. There is a need for the State to balance the investment being made in different streams of education and to consider supporting apprenticeships financially.

Turning to the point concerning Deputy O'Sullivan's brother working in fabrication, his huge earning potential and the Deputy’s own 15 years teaching Irish, all I can say in answer is look at the Deputy now.