Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome these statements on apprenticeships and further education and training developments. It is welcome that there are 67 different apprenticeship programmes in the country and I know some of them are doing exceptionally well. However, there are also difficulties and problems and we cannot hide away from them. I pay tribute to all of the companies which open up opportunities for young people to enter apprenticeship programmes. Most of them do well and develop employment opportunities for these people who become an asset to the companies in question. However, we need to acknowledge that a tiny minority of companies and businesses treat their apprentices badly. Sometimes apprenticeships are kept on for a long time and are not treated as they should be. We need to recognise that.

The areas of the economy where we have the greatest opportunities to develop people's skills include the health sector. Ireland has a tradition of sending our nurses to every part of the world. We were a caring society and nation, which sent missionaries to every part of Africa and the darkest parts of the world. We have an innate ability to develop the area of medical practitioners - doctors and nurses etc. - and biomedical sciences. We are doing some of that but it needs greater emphasis. As has been said, people who train in the professions often leave. If we only train 50 and 25 of them leave, the answer is to train 100 and then at least only 50 will leave. The only way to do it is to increase the capacity. The cost of that is of course borne by the taxpayer but it is repaid because it is an investment in the future. It is an investment not only in the students and their future, but in society itself.

Growing up in County Leitrim, there was much poverty around us and we could readily see it. The one way out of it for many people was to take the chance of a bit of education, move forward from that and break that cycle within families. Education is important and apprenticeships are often part of that too. The apprenticeship programme in place is doing well in certain areas but there are serious problems with the centres, which are not up to standard. They need to be expanded and developed. I hope the investment promised in that area will be delivered as quickly as possible. Developing and investing more in higher and further education and apprenticeships are critical to the economy and the future of our society.

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