Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Will the Minister provide an update for the waiting list for the craft apprenticeships and the progress in decentralising the craft apprenticeship model? When I raised this with the Minister last month, there had been a 17% increase in the number of apprentices waiting to access off-the-job training over the preceding two months, with figures back up to just under 10,000.

10 o’clock

It will be a missed opportunity if we do not take a centre and office for apprenticeships outside Dublin and the big urban areas. In the main, apprenticeships and apprentices will be drawn from rural Ireland into construction trades and across the agricultural and possibly retail sectors.

Deputy Conway-Walsh spoke of the challenges regarding student accommodation. The last thing we need to do is pile more students into large urban centres, fuelling the fire of the housing crisis. We have an opportunity with the Minister's statement of intent in terms of apprenticeships to reconfigure and recalibrate where we direct and where we house our students. It is a huge opportunity for the Minister and for rural Ireland.

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