Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the very important issue of apprenticeships. We have made a serious commitment to expand the range of options. The position is not one of the chaos which the Deputy described but one of very rapid expansion in the number of people enrolling in traditional apprenticeships. During the past three years, including this year, there was an increase of more than 20% each year in the number of enrolments in apprenticeships and the forecast is for further increases in each of the next years of over 20% per year. We have already trebled compared to the lowest number of apprenticeships and we are planning to expand the numbers rapidly.

I will investigate the issues of concern to the Deputy regarding individual centres such as Loughlinstown or any others he wishes to bring to my attention. With the collapse in the number of apprenticeships, and as we seek to rebuild this national scheme, we cannot ensure every centre will always offer the range of options. Given that it is a national scheme, we must ensure that we build up capacity in an efficient way. This may require people not going to their nearest centre to complete their programme. This is in the context of major expansion.

As the Deputy recognises, we are moving to fill the gap which he rightly pointed out. In Germany, approximately 40 young people per 1,000 take up apprenticeships, whereas here it is approximately ten. We need to move to a much higher level. To do this, we propose to increase the number of apprentices from the current 27, which the Deputy mentioned, to 100 over the coming years. Some of them will be at a very high level, such as the one I recently launched at the Institute of Technology, Sligo, which will be a level 8 apprenticeship. We recognise that as we move to meet the challenges of a new economy which is emerging, and the challenges of Brexit, we need to rebuild this skill base and build it in new areas of technical expertise.

I will seek information for the Deputy on the issues regarding the contract terms of different instructors. The terms under which people are employed are, presumably, tied up with various negotiated agreements. Given that the Deputy did not mention the issue in his question, I do not have any briefing on it.

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