Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Ministers of State, Deputies Mitchell O'Connor and Halligan, have been doing the heavy lifting on this issue since this Government was appointed in 2016. We thought about doing the usual tonight: voting against a motion because Government votes against an Opposition motion, until we realised there are certain elements of it where we are singing from the same hymn sheet. We are all aspiring to get more and we are not there yet but we adopt this position in the interests of being collaborative, as Deputy Curran said, and co-operative because it is an important issue. I acknowledge the role of the Ministers of State in the past two years because it has been a learning experience in the past two weeks to find out how much work has gone on. I served my apprenticeship in Departments with responsibility for communications, the Gaeltacht and foreign affairs and sometimes a Minister of State could be beavering away and coming up with new ideas but nobody would know about it. I commend the work of both these Ministers of State. They have engaged with the Higher Education Authority, HEA, and industry. This is industry and demand led. There was an 80% drop in registration during the recession years. We are moving into a more positive position.

I hear the point on the gender issue. That is a real challenge. When I was a secondary school teacher trying to teach mathematics, business studies and geography there were always one or two students who knew when they were 12 or 14 that they were not heading for an academic world but were heading to be plasterers, mechanics or something in the engineering sector. We do have to listen to secondary school students and what they want and where they feel the world of work is going. We have to be robust and both Ministers of State appreciate and understand that. The world of work is changing and there will be different types of work. We do not know where 40% of jobs will be in the next five years.

I acknowledge the different organisations, including institutes of technology, the university sector, and the education and training boards, ETBs, in particular. Traditionally, the ETBs had a specific focus on vocational education and they have kept that culture and philosophy. I also acknowledge other schools that offer engineering and crafts. We are looking at changing needs. I learned there are 17 new consortia led apprenticeships in a variety of sectors, ranging from financial services to logistics, and ICT to hospitality. We have to adapt. Few apprenticeships were developed in the past 20 years. However, by the end of the year, the Government will have almost doubled the number of apprentices available and we hope to have reached a figure of 33 by the end of 2019. These sectors all saw the value of offering apprenticeships with a new flexible approach. The State dictated model was not able to be expanded and we are now having the conversation about new possibilities.

Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil le mo chomhghleacaithe as an gcomhoibriú seo. I thank Fianna Fáil for its suggestion on how we can work collaboratively on this issue. The House needs to hold the Government to account but it must also be flexible to ensure we can have debate and bring concrete solutions forward. I acknowledge the great work of my two colleagues, the Ministers of State, Deputies Mitchell O'Connor and Halligan, in the past two years.

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