Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate. A national recovery plan is important and I want to focus on the training and apprentice element. I want to raise the importance of training and proper apprenticeships, and I emphasis “proper apprenticeships” as we attempt to recover and emerge from the pandemic.

We are in a housing crisis and it will only get more demanding. It will require an army of workers. Hundreds of thousands of homes must also be retrofitted. However, there is a shortage of construction skills. I forecast in this House eight years ago that we would reach this point. Even if we meet the modest social housing targets set by the Government in the recovery plan, along with the need in the private construction sector, because we require that as well, we will not have the construction workers necessary. This reality was highlighted in the recent TASC report on construction. It is a reality in Laois-Offaly that the skilled people to carry out the work required are not available. Therefore, the Government must encourage more young people to enter apprenticeships that can help us rebuild our economy, build houses, and do the retrofitting that is needed.

Not everyone has to or wants to go to third level. What is important, however, is that the Government enforces strong terms and conditions for apprenticeships. I am hearing reports that a practice has developed where young workers are being exploited on bogus apprenticeships. They are used as cheap labour and then let go one, two or three years after they are taken on, with new apprentices hired, mar dhea, in their place. There must be a proper training element, with new workers fully qualifying after four years. The Ministers, Deputies Varadkar and Harris, must clamp down on this practice if we are to see young people attracted to this sector. I emphasise that and ask that the Minister of State brings that message back because it is very important. The TASC report also highlighted that there are substantial levels of bogus self-employment in the construction sector. This is supported by the evidence we gathered recently on the Committee of Public Accounts, and gathered by Revenue, which highlights a high prevalence of bogus self-employment. If we want people to work in construction, they must be paid a fair wage and be guaranteed decent terms and conditions. Sectoral agreed rates of pay for trades and general operatives must be applied on all sides, especially to projects funded out of the public purse by the taxpayer, which is important. It is possible to do this.

We want to get people back to work. My party, Sinn Féin, wants to get people back into good quality work with proper terms and conditions, and ensure they have a living wage. I want to know whether the Minister of State and the Government intend to do this and make the construction sector an area where people want to work again.

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