Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is a matter of record that a member of Deputy Cullinane's party asked me directly in a committee about the apprenticeship model and repeated analogies have been made to what apprentices are paid. The example of Australia has been raised in this House, which runs both an apprenticeship model and a degree programme. I assure Deputy Cullinane, therefore, that we are taking this issue very seriously. Two separate issues are being raised and we are addressing both.

The first falls primarily within my remit, and relates to whether students are being asked to do inappropriate practices while on placement. I take that deadly seriously. Neither I nor anyone in the Department has had any contact from the colleges regarding this in the past. I have checked.

I have instigated a formal review. If serious breaches are found, they will be dealt with because students are under the care of the HSE when on placement. We are taking this matter deadly seriously.

With regard to the allowance, if I understood the Deputy correctly, Sinn Féin is not looking for a wage for first, second and third years but it is looking for an appropriate allowance. I welcome and agree with that. To that end, we are doing two things. We are carrying out a short review at the request of the representative bodies to get the allowance in place in January at a time of Covid and we are considering a second review that would deal with the time after Covid.

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