Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge that in his previous portfolio as Minister before he became Taoiseach, he did some good work in the area of higher education and diverting people towards trades. The haulage and agriculture industries and many others, including the hospitality, are desperately crying out for staff and people to work in them. The whole situation with work visas is too slow and cumbersome. We also need to have more apprenticeship programmes for lorry drivers and machine operators in agriculture and industry because they are badly needed. We need a whole-of-government approach because people are crying out for help. They are trying to survive in business and when the weather is fine and they need to work they are under a lot of pressure but they cannot do it without staff. Most of us have very good staff but we need a dedicated chain of employees who would come into those industries and make careers out of them. However, they need to be directed there from the schools, colleges and technological universities.

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