Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I am glad apprenticeships were brought up, but I could not accept the mothers of Ireland are to blame for the issue. There is a combination of things. Obviously, it speaks to what was said earlier on, in that career guidance must be in schools. It is not good enough having one career guidance teacher. As fantastic as the career guidance teacher may be, he or she could be spread over too many pupils. That is what is happening. I hear that about career guidance all the time. When we get to first year at third level, a lack of career guidance is cited as a reason for being in the wrong courses.

There is a backlog in apprenticeships. It takes six years to do a four-year apprenticeship, which is wholly unacceptable. We need to be careful we do not cover up or cover over these things. Capital investment is needed for the workshops and all of that with regard to the craft apprenticeship. I agree that the situation is turning. We need to encourage that. It is very good it is on the CAO side now, but more information than a link is needed. I hope the plans being put in place will come to fruition. I completely agree with Mr. Irwin about the ESB apprenticeships. They are in huge demand in Mayo, as well, around Bellacorick. Why were the local authorities not tasked with having a specific number of apprenticeships? We did not have that. We have all of these public bodies that should have had apprenticeships over the years, but did not. It is not just the mothers of Ireland. We need to share some of the responsibility, but it can certainly be addressed.

Today's session was valuable. We need to measure the amount of private investment that is going in to education from parents, often from families who cannot afford it. Mocks will have been done in the past couple of weeks. If parents see their child will not get the necessary grade in maths in particular, or languages and other subjects, at higher level or not, tuition is bought in. I wish to see that examined further. I am not sure how we will quantify it, but the inequality and inequity that develops really concerns me. We have to stop this.