Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is a very interesting area and I am glad Fianna Fáil has brought the subject forward. It is definitely an issue that has been neglected. The area I am most familiar with is the construction industry where there is a serious problem now. The most essential trade in construction is probably carpentry. If a young man wanted to serve his time as a carpenter 30 years ago, he would be taken on by a contractor and assigned to a qualified carpenter. He would spend five years with that carpenter, who would be obliged to train him. The young man would be a runner for the first while, seeing to errands, but he would eventually be trained. This process included an element of testing to make sure the apprentice was fit to be a carpenter.

The system worked really well. One of the main reasons it has collapsed is that builders, especially the bigger builders, no longer employ labour directly. It is mostly subcontracted and it is less feasible for a subcontractor to get into the apprenticeship game. This creates a major challenge and the position will not change without Government intervention. It has reached a stage where one cannot find young qualified tradespeople in Ireland. For more than 15 years we have been outsourcing them by finding workers in eastern Europe. We bring in guys who have done the work in their own country but we do not have tradespeople of our own to do the work. That is a serious problem.

I have seen research carried out by Dublin Institute of Technology, DIT, showing that only 29% of firms in the construction industry engage in apprenticeship training. I am surprised the figure is that high. Obviously, that does not bode well for trade skills in the country going forward.

The report suggests that as confidence and a lack of sufficient work are identified as key issues, efforts should be made to establish mechanisms by which alternative delivery of employment and training could be achieved. Part of the problem is that no Government has dealt with the fact that we have a dysfunctional construction industry. Until some Government tackles that, we will find it difficult to address the apprenticeship problem without it costing a lot of money.

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