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

I thank the Minister. Going into a new apprenticeship needs to be attractive to young people and indeed to people throughout their life cycle. They get paid very little for the very hard work they do and the Government and SOLAS needs to get this right. We know that years of under-investment have left a shortage of capacity in the system but the fact is that only 1,798 apprentices became fully qualified trades people in 2021 and that is close to 600 fewer than in 2020 and represents the lowest number of newly qualified tradespeople since 2017. This is a really serious situation. We also have to look at the offsite training places and provide them closer to home. We all know what the accommodation and housing situation has done. Will the Minister ask everybody involved in apprenticeships and in making the decisions to place apprentices as near as possible to their homes so that we cut down on some of the costs that are involved for our apprentices.

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