Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I know this is an issue that the Minister, Deputy Harris, and Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, are very interested in and committed to. We are in the process of a major overhaul of the apprenticeship system, creating more apprenticeships, different types of apprenticeships and also, from my side, helping to encourage employers to take on more apprentices. We want to increase the number of apprenticeships to 10,000 every year, which would be significant. We need apprentices because the areas in which they are trained, particularly construction, crafts and so on, are essential. We need more younger people taking up careers in those areas and we are going to push for that in the next few years.

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