Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My question relates to the delivery of apprenticeships in a safe, practical way and the chaos that seems to be happening. A change came about due to the collapse in the construction industry and our economy, and many construction related apprenticeships ended abruptly. It is, therefore, good to see that SOLAS and the education and training boards, ETBs, are working together to offer apprenticeships as FÁS did in the past. From the debacle around JobBridge, we know the range of apprenticeships should be much greater and we should offer much more. We should offer something similar to the Germans rather than the approximately five apprenticeships that have been on offer to date.

It is regrettable that the ETBs and SOLAS did not use the opportunity of the downturn to reorganise the sector and the centres to ensure there were enough qualified instructors to deliver the courses they were offering. Decisions taken at the time of the collapse, since then and recently have many of the SOLAS and ETB centres in chaos. For example, in some centres there is no or very limited equipment related to the apprenticeship offered, so the course cannot be run. There are no instructors for some of the courses offered.

In Loughlinstown, the instructor walked off the job given that he could not get a contract that would allow him to deliver the six months' apprenticeship. He was offered only one month's contract. It is crazy. There is a shortage of instructors based on the fact that the ETB, SOLAS or whoever is paying are offering only short-term, rolling, four-week contracts for courses that last six months or longer. Maybe it is because they are happy to use retired instructors or tutors. In those cases, there seem to be three different sets of wages for instructors. Retired instructors are getting €36 per hour while those on four-week contracts are getting €23 per hour and those who have managed to get a one-year contract - imagine that - are on less attractive hourly rates of €20. What is the difference? There is no reason, in this day and age, that there should be a set of differences.

In the past, when the courses were run by FÁS, instructors had no issues with payment. Obviously, everybody wished to be paid more. Now, if one works in a centre and wants to help at another centre to cover somebody's holiday or sick leave, it is a bureaucratic quagmire. One is paid and taxed in a different way and the employer is different. It is a disincentive. If the instructor in Loughlinstown is sick, an instructor from Baldoyle who might have spare hours will not travel to Loughlinstown to provide cover. Can the Minister elaborate and explain why those differences exist, given where we have come from?

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