Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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It does to an extent, but apprenticeships are for providing skills to employers. The State is putting a considerable amount of money into these programmes. I am not saying it is the perfect level of funding but it seems that the only sector that sought to create a central recruitment process was the financial services sector and it succeeded in developing apprenticeships. Some of them went to level 9. An environment was created in which it was much easier for students who were interested to see a pathway. They did not need to know people in the know to get in. A club of employers was also created which made it easier for employers to get on board. My question is why that has not become more extensive. Some of the biggest and most progressive sectors operate out of Ireland but we do not seem to have succeeded in getting that level of engagement from them.

I wonder whether pushing the grant up to €7,000 is what makes some of those bigger companies tick. As Ms McGee stated, it is in the ESB's DNA. It does not do it because it gets €7,000 from the Government. It does it because it sees it as part of its good business model and its corporate responsibility. I am all for more investment, but we must find ways of creating something deeper than simply providing another grant to cover the costs. That is what I feel is missing. We will never get apprenticeships to be seen on a par with going to the college Ms McGee's colleague led for so many years because parents see it as a status thing, whereas the reality is that you can get just as high a level of qualification and earn as you learn. It is a good model. People can go on and do a degree afterwards if they wish. We need to find a wider network than the old model we had.

The Government has done a fair amount. It has created apprenticeships so that there are 61 now whereas there used to be only 24. We need to see the sectors come forward to make this more viable. Skillnet Ireland is a good model. Rather than creating a new voucher, it would be better to look to our established networks to get small companies that want to do something different to do it together. It is not a grant. It is a more engaged process. Enterprise Ireland already offers vouchers in the area of research with support from Science Foundation Ireland, SFI. I wonder about a shopping list when we have a lot of stuff out there already.