Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not have that breakdown off the top of my head but from memory, approximately 6,000 of the current apprentices are in the craft area. That is roughly speaking where I would imagine we will land. There is a big push on developing craft apprenticeships and working with the construction and retrofitting sectors and the green economy because there are really key and acute issues there. I will definitely take up the Deputy's invitation to visit schools. I visited 80 secondary schools in the last 12 months. I feel really passionate, as I know the Deputy does, about getting into schools and showing these to young people as an opportunity. I am very pleased that taster apprenticeship courses, if I may call them that, have now been introduced in transition year in a number of schools. That should be happening in all schools as quickly as possible. I am very pleased to hear about that initiative with John Sisk & Sons, to which I pay tribute in that regard.

Yes, I want to do more on the terms and conditions and pay and support for our apprentices. Against that I would say that we have seen more people than ever before effectively now put up their hands up to become apprentices. Apprentices are not in any way immune from the cost-of-living crisis, however. I am very eager to engage with them and their representative bodies between now and the budget to see how we can further support them.

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