Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

This year FÁS registered 6,000 fewer apprentices than it did two years ago. Next year, it will be worse. The number of apprentices in construction will be down from 4,500 to 1,000 while the number in the electrical trades will be down from 2,500 to 1,000. It has been hard at the best of times for a young man or woman to get an apprenticeship. It will be harder next year. Many in current apprenticeships are being told they cannot finish because of the downturn in the economy.

Apprenticeship is the core business of FÁS. Today, many young people who cannot get an apprenticeship or finish it will ask themselves what on earth were the top brass in FÁS doing looking at the US national space centre in Florida. Do we have apprentice astronauts? Were they in the nail bar trying to register apprentices for carpentry?

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