Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the statement by the Minister that no apprenticeship class will be cancelled. I assume that also means none will be paused. I would like to think there will not be any major cuts across the service in the further education area.

The Minister said the situation has just arisen. Could he explain how this was not foreseen at an earlier stage? I welcome the fact that he is addressing it. Could he give us a timeline for when this will be settled because the reason we have all heard this, both officially and unofficially, is people are very afraid due to the difficulties that have arisen. We must ensure that there is sustainable funding for further education, in particular apprenticeships, because we spend half the time in here talking about the necessity to build more houses. It would not do if we were not providing a sufficient number of apprenticeships. That is accepting the complexity of the issue, as outlined by the Minister.

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