Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for any repetition from the last time we spoke on these particular issues. I agree that the debate is timely. We have the OECD report on skills. We also have the beginning of the European Year of Skills. We had Europe Day yesterday. We all know the positives from the solidarity that Europe has shown to Ireland particularly during the time of Covid and through the entire period of madness post Brexit. Europe has shown solidarity and support for the Good Friday Agreement. As I have stated on more than one occasion, Europe will eventually play a role in delivering Irish unity. However, that is not what we are here to speak about today.

Europe faces the worry, like much of the world, that it must protect people from poverty. That is the biggest protective piece we can have. Education is one of the means by which we do that. As I have said many times before, there are a lot of people who are well removed, who are on the periphery of society, and for whom we need to make interventions and to bridge that gap. That is a vital piece that needs to be done.

I agree with everything that has been said. We all get the idea of lifelong learning. We get the idea that there are certain skill sets that we may have all learnt, due to slightly different living conditions over many years, that need to be taught. I have spoken before about soft skills and the need to build that into the curriculum, whether that is in secondary school or starting college or further education and training. That is a piece of work we need to look at. We have all heard employers state at times that there are certain skills they would like to see in employees that are not necessarily always there on day one. Anything we can do to facilitate that is important and absolutely vital for young people.

We welcome the whole idea of apprenticeships. We know that we are not just talking about the necessary trades that we do need, because we all know the housing crisis that we are in and the fact that we will need a hell of a lot more people. We know about the delays with apprenticeships. Somebody contacted me in recent days because the person is under pressure. The person is 18 months behind on an apprenticeship. We all know there are issues in this regard, and they must be dealt with as quickly as possible. We know the absolute need to ensure these young people will have the skills that we require now. We must facilitate them to get through the system as quickly as possible.

There are also apprenticeships and lifelong learning. There are different shapes and structures to what we understood previously in relation to college. I have often spoken about the post-leaving certificate courses, PLCs, and the journey taken, including by my own familial connections. My stepson did a PLC through to the Dundalk Institute of Technology, DKIT. I can only see positives in it. My other son is attending a course in the Ó Fiaich Institute at the moment. I have spoken many times and I will engage with the Minister, and other ministerial colleagues, about the fact that the Ó Fiaich post-primary school and the Ó Fiaich Institute of Further Education that provides PLCs are constrained by space and their expansion must be facilitated. It is pity the senior Minister is gone because I will obviously be chasing him up about a necessary meeting with personal assistants, PAs. I am talking about PLCs and the Ó Fiaich Institute on the basis that these are some of the vital building blocks we have in regard to skill sets and ensuring that we have the people, whether we are talking about tech, pharma, across STEM and beyond, so that we ensure that we have delivery.

We have all talked here about workforce planning. At times, an insufficient amount has been done. We must look at assistive technologies and reasonable accommodation to facilitate those who have greater needs to be able to get into education and employment. I have mentioned DKIT. A vital piece of work must be done to ensure that under the new president, Diarmuid O'Callaghan, we are able to deliver technological university status. That is an absolute necessity. I could probably go on for a long time, but I will not.

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