Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

As an employer in the building skills profession, when I hear about the European Year of Skills 2023 I am delighted and think that the Government may finally be getting this right. Unfortunately, this is again not the case in Ireland. SMEs employ 1.1 million people here. These are companies that employ less than 250 employees. This initiative should be entirely focused on them.

Some 270 SMEs in Ireland are experiencing skills shortages, including in the areas of biomedical, chemical, electrical and engineering. There is also a huge shortage of skills in all aspects of healthcare. It is a similar situation in the construction business, where we are struggling to meet demand. What about the opportunity for the Government to promote, help upskill and retain staff in SMEs? Unfortunately, it is only focused on driving a green agenda. I spoke previously about starting apprenticeships for early school leavers in education following the junior certificate, where all their placements could be got locally within the SME sector. This also fell on deaf ears.

Education is not for everyone, but people should try to stay in school for as long as they can in order to get a basic education. As part of a process for dealing with early school leavers, I asked the Minister to look at introducing an apprenticeship model after the junior certificate. This would mean an apprenticeship could start after the junior certificate, which would equate to starting fifth year. Fifth and sixth year would be equal to one year of an apprenticeship but that one year over the two-year cycle would mean apprentices would have back-up from the school to get them through the exams they need to get. As they get a little older, at the end of two years they might decide either that they want to sit their leaving certificate or pursue their apprenticeship. Again, however, the Government is not looking at people who are early school leavers. As I said, education is not for everyone. I commend people who want to go to third level but for people who want to leave school early, I want to make sure back-up is there in the school that will encourage them to stay within the school, follow an apprenticeship model and, if they decide to continue with it, at least one year of their apprenticeship will be done. That would help in all these different sectors across the board, whether it is construction or any local SME business, as they would be upskilled.

The launch of European Year of Skills 2023 is good for some sectors but it should be focused more on SMEs to help and provide for these businesses. As I said, 1.1 million people are employed by SMEs but all the funding seems to go to larger employers. As someone from a rural area in County Limerick and an employer in construction - I have been in construction all my life - I can see the benefits of SMEs. They include our local shops, butchers, and different local businesses even, for example, Croom Medical. All these businesses would benefit from proper funding, infrastructure and skill sets.

There is a long way to go and Ireland has a lot to learn. The way we start should be with SMEs in this country because they are the most rounded and they understand everything within a local area. When you start with something like a foundation on the bottom, you understand everything and it can feed into the bigger skills we need to get to. We first need to start with the SMEs in this country, including farming or people from other areas who can learn from this. It has to start with the SMEs that employ 1.1 million people.

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