Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to address the issue of the national apprenticeship training placement system. I understand apprenticeship scheduling is currently carried out on a national basis by co-ordinating providers and all efforts are made to schedule apprentices to their nearest available training location. If this is not possible, they will be called to the next nearest available location. However, the system is restricted by the availability of training spaces within the pool of college providers for the craft in question. In some instances, apprentices in Kerry have been assigned to a programme in Dundalk and apprentices in Dundalk to programmes in Kerry. There are similar cases elsewhere.

Apprentices are entitled to request rescheduling should a college location not be their preference. They are only permitted to request a reschedule up to three times. When an offer is refused, the length of the delay will be specific to when the next available scheduled class is due to commence. It is my understanding that there is no guarantee that a closer location would be available for those who request it.

It is clear from speaking to constituents in County Kerry that apprentices are being sent unacceptable distances for their necessary training. This issue disproportionately affects rural and working-class families and those without personal transport. The current system discourages these individuals from pursuing careers in their desired trades at a time when we are facing a huge shortage of skilled labour. I appreciate that the Government has put significant resources into dealing with the backlog in the system, which is falling significantly. Credit is due here and I urge the Government to continue to work on that. However, I ask the Minister and his Department to work to find a solution for those apprentices travelling long distances to training centres by allocating increased resources to build capacity in current training centres and develop new training facilities across the country. Another issue is the short notice when trying to acquire accommodation, in particular given the national housing crisis.

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