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

A great deal of analysis has been carried out. We have an analysis unit in my Department on the labour market and future skills. There is also the future skills needs working group. The Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, does some work on this as well, as does the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, which falls under my Department's remit.

As the Deputy rightly pointed out though, it is a comprehensive issue. It is not only an issue for my Department. It is an issue for the Departments of Social Protection, Education and Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

Part of the solution is education and training. We will be up to 10,000 apprentices a year quite soon. There are approximately 8,000 this year. That is a lot. There were very few people going into apprenticeships. Only a few years ago, there were a couple of thousand. We will be up to 10,000 a year quite soon.

I mentioned the 50,000 upskilling and reskilling opportunities. On work permits and work visas, we are issuing more than ever before.

We need to do more to make work pay to make sure that it is attractive for people to go into employment and to work more hours. The Deputy will be aware what we are doing in relation to sick pay and the living wage. Deputy Naughten mentioned earlier the PRSI step effect, which we need to deal with in some budget, sooner or later.

There is also the issue of automation. It may not be possible to provide labour to do everything and we need to automate more tasks. That is already happening but it will have to accelerate.

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