Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the issue of apprentices being forced to pay college fees. These fees can range from €833 to €1,433 per year, depending on the particular apprenticeship and how much time is required in college. The Minister for Education and Skills insists on treating apprentices as students, but they are not students. They cannot avail of student grants or other financial assistance available to students. They are full-time workers and very low-paid workers at that. Apprentices in their first year will be paid the minimum wage and their pay does not rise much after that. They pay income tax, the universal social charge, PRSI and so forth. The apprentices of today are very different from apprentices in the past. The latter often left school at 15 or 16 and were finished their apprenticeships by the time they were 21 or 22. Many of today's apprentices are young adults with family responsibilities. A total of 1,500 out of the 7,500 apprentices in Ireland are currently unemployed. They have been made redundant and may have to wait a number of years to gain employment and continue their apprenticeships.

In 2004 there was an attempt to make apprentices pay college fees but it was defeated by mass protests and the threat of a legal challenge in the High Court. This Government reintroduced college fees for apprentices in the October budget. The Technical, Electrical and Engineering Union, TEEU, and the Union of Students in Ireland, USI, have launched a campaign to axe the tax on learning. They have quite correctly pointed out that it makes a mockery of the promise to provide young people with a job, work experience, an apprenticeship or training under the youth guarantee. I am glad to see the Minister for Education and Skills is in the House today. To date, he has refused to meet the TEEU or the USI. Will the Tánaiste, as leader of the Labour Party, give an absolute commitment to arrange such a meeting and address the concerns of these young workers? I urge him to find the resources to reinstate the payment of college fees for this small group of workers. It was with FÁS but did not transfer over to SOLAS.

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