Mr. William Beausang:

I thank the Deputy for her question. It speaks directly to the action plan for apprenticeship and the public service apprenticeship plan. The Deputy mentioned she has only got a limited number of replies. I do not have the data to hand, but if the Deputy receives all the replies, it will show a very low level of apprenticeship in the public service. That is very disappointing from a Government perspective because the Government wants the public service to show leadership on apprenticeship. In promoting apprenticeship as a mainstream option and in the way Government wishes to do so, it does not look aligned if the public service is not employing many apprentices.

There is a target in the public service apprenticeship plan of 750 apprenticeship registrations a year, starting next year. That is a target that will be challenging for us to achieve from the base we are starting from. The Deputy mentioned the local authorities in particular, which is a really good example. It relates to other areas and another Department's area of responsibilities but that model has changed. The model of direct provision of those apprenticeships of what qualified tradesmen do has changed. As the Deputy will know, a lot of those services are contracted out, which means the level of employment in the local authorities is not high.

Dublin and Cork might be outliers, but it still not very high even in those local authorities. Arising from an engagement with ICTU officials who said that we have to start somewhere, they recommended that, as part of the apprenticeship plan, there would be a commitment or an action that each local authority hire five apprentices. That is in the plan. Through the structures that have been put in place-----