Ms Bridget Kelly:

Regarding the employer grants, the uptake of grants, as we have said, has been very low. Some of the apprentices are obviously not disclosing due to the fear of repercussions or the fear of losing their employment with the employer. However, we have been doing a lot of work in trying to increase the uptake of employers. We have also been linking in with the National Apprenticeship Office. We are working on a national employer Traveller campaign. We are at the very early stages in that regard. We are currently working with the office but we are saying it is bigger than us and bigger than the National Apprenticeship Office. The likes of IBEC, the trade unions and all relevant stakeholders need to be part of that, and also the Government. The national Traveller and Roma inclusion strategy sets out key actions there as well in relation to trying to address the unemployment situation for Travellers. While there is some key positive work happening within NTRIS, we were promised an employment and enterprise training strategy in 2020 under the programme for Government and it was supposed to come in under NTRIS as well. Unfortunately, that has never come to light. However, we are pushing for that under NTRIS because it is key to helping the situation and putting key actions in place that will help to address the employment situation for Travellers.

There is huge work happening with employers. We are linking in with the public sector and with ESB and Bus Éireann as I touched on earlier. Those organisations have been very visible. The ESB is a semi-State body. We recently took part in a panel discussion with it at the national inclusion and diversity conference. I do not know if Ms Gilsenan feels the same but we found that there were a lot of employers in the room for the panel discussion and coming from that meeting alone a few of them have reached out. When an employer steps out, becomes more visible and takes on Traveller apprentices, it does have an effect. We need to see more employers like that. We need to see more employers that will take on Travellers in apprenticeships but also in employment or work placements or for work experience. It is a big issue. There is a big challenge but we are working on it and more needs to be done. As I said, it is bigger than the programme. It needs Government intervention and the likes of IBEC and the trade unions.

Regarding the stats around the 477 expressions of interest, I do not have the exact stats of how many are in apprentices but between 100 and 130 have gone on to do apprenticeships. I will come back to the Deputy with the exact figure. Some of these would be pre-apprenticeship courses as well. It is great to see. With our programme we have seen that the community is engaging with the programme. The demand is there and the need is there but it is just getting buy-in from the employers. We need more employers on board that will take on Traveller apprentices. Our programme also needs to move from a pilot to a more mainstream funding programme that helps to address the employment and meet the demand and the need for Traveller apprentices across the country.