Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to flag an issue with the Minister of State, which I have raised previously with his colleague, the then-Minister of the Department and now Taoiseach, Deputy Harris, in relation to the craft certificate. Since the craft certificates have come on stream, I have been dealing for almost one year with an issue a constituent of mine, Paschal Ryan, has in this regard. When he applied for his craft certificate, it was brought to his attention, or at least it was put on the record, that he had not passed an exam 38 years ago. This is a man who is a qualified electrician and was practising as an electrician for 38 years. He was done out of a job with the stoke of a pen or with this piece of information, if it is accurate. He has not worked as an electrician in the past year. While he is trying to resolve this issue himself by way of exams and so on, it has come to his attention there are other people in this situation. This goes back to when the exams were under An Chomhairle Oiliúna, which is a good long time ago. It seems to be difficult to access the records.

The man in question makes the point that he finished his senior year in training. How could he have done that if he had not succeeded in his junior year? There is an issue here. I will send the Minister of State correspondence on this matter. The man was working as an electrician but was done out of a job. The issue concerning the craft card seems to have arisen in several cases.

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