Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)

I welcome the Minister's response to Deputy Terence Flanagan on taking this to the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. I imagine that the intent of this question and what is proposed is to complement existing local services rather than to replace them.

On a similar theme, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment's reply to a parliamentary question of mine before Christmas showed there are 2,400 apprentices within six to 12 months of the completion of their apprenticeships who are without work and cannot complete their qualifications until they acquire work. Given that local authorities, particularly in today's economic climate, are among the biggest procurers of contracts and tenders, would the Minister consider putting a position in place whereby local authority tendering processes would in future take cognisance of the situation and ensure these apprentices could be taken on, even for a temporary period, to complete this training? At present, the breakdown is that there are 1,650 of these apprentices in the construction sector, more than 500 in the electrical sector, 68 in the engineering sector and more than 100 in the mechanical sector.

The simple suggestion I make to the Minister is that, as part of the tendering process, a number of these people in Cork, in the Minister's constituency and elsewhere could be taken on and given that six months' to 12 months' experience. Ultimately, the difficulty they have is that they cannot secure employment either here or abroad until they have that paperwork completed.

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