Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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Could we have a note on apprenticeships are regards the initiatives? What initiatives are now happening? What progress has been made on them in the past 12 months in using the public sector? What efforts are being made to convince or reach employers to get them to take on apprenticeships? As regards the public sector, could the area of semi-State companies be included in that note? Have we ongoing programmes with semi-State companies to entice people in? We have a serious problem with those gaps in the workforce.

I will ask about third level debts. The committee has addressed the issue of financial governance, and governance in general, in the third level sector a number of times. I understand that each of the institutions operate somewhat independently. However, if we look at the level of debt, the Technological University of Dublin is facing a €10 million funding deficit, UCC a deficit of €2.5 million, for the University of Limerick it is €4 million annually, Galway, UCD and TCD have a combined debt of €40 million, Waterford has €6 million, Tralee has €2 million, and for NCAD it is €1 million. A letter was sent by the coalition of universities to the Minister in September, which outlined an overall funding deficit of €614 million. That is a funding deficit as opposed to debts, which is fair enough, but it highlights that within the sector there are problems with institutions trying to find funding.

As I understand it, €40 million has been provided to address those demands. We are facing a situation where some of those institutions will possibly need, for want of a better term, a bailout. Where there are institutions in debt, such as those I mentioned, especially those that have the deepest level of debt, will the Department intervene in certain situations to try to shore up and stabilise the funding situation?