Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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One of Mr. Clancy's officials gave me figures for jobs.

I will move on to apprenticeships and the shortage of labour in particular. As a true believer in earning and training at the same time, I do not believe everybody needs to go to third level. Of course it is great that so many are going to third level. Many students are in third level education until their late 20s. I am not sure that we have got the balance right in terms of workforce development and people development. Obviously there is no workforce without people. For cultural reasons there has been a bit of snobbery about apprenticeships. It became fashionable to say that one's son or daughter was going to college. An apprenticeship has perhaps certain connotations and the perception is that one would wear a pair of overalls and have dirty hands. As Mr. Clancy and I know, other countries, Germany in particular, run extensive apprenticeship programmes in accountancy and a range of areas. Enterprise Ireland does not control the levers in regard to apprenticeships, but in terms of influence, does Mr. Clancy see this as an area that needs to be further developed?