Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This country never seems to be able to anticipate what is foreseeable and to do anything about it. What I find extraordinary is that people did not accept that what happened in terms of the downturn was akin to a bungee jump in that the further down the building industry went the higher up it had to jump. We now have a massive accumulation of under-performance in terms of building houses for our people and all other types of premises that are needed. When we got over all of the planning difficulties, we were faced with a huge skills shortage. Amazingly, this was not anticipated. It is not possible to produce blocklayers, plumbers, electricians and so on quickly, which are hugely in demand skills. We are trying to ramp up the building industry here but there are no construction workers available to it. What I find disconcerting is that when people do take up apprenticeships - I commend the small companies which are again taking on apprentices - they discover there is a logjam in accessing the colleges, including the institute of technology in the constituency of the Minister of State, Deputy Halligan, and courses to enable them to progress to the next phase of their apprenticeship. The logjams need to be addressed urgently. We need to ensure people can access apprenticeships and also ensure the training to allow them progress with the academic part of their apprenticeships is available in the educational establishments.

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