Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I hope the Senator and I have many chances to engage. She made a point about how we attract young people, be they male, female or even not-so-young individuals. One of the projects I am working relates to reform of the Central Applications Office. In this country, we narrow the discussion about the full range of options far too early. In my home town, the conversation is often whether someone is going to UCD or Trinity College rather than about what the person actually wants to do and how we can help him or her to get there, with an apprenticeship being seen as a viable route in this regard.

We need many more people in the craft space, but not just in that space. When I was a Minister of State, we worked at introducing an apprenticeship relating to financial services, which is going very well now. There has always been considerable untapped potential and this is even more important now in the context of the Covid pandemic. My sense is that the financial incentive we introduced for employers has helped stabilise the situation during the pandemic.

I will follow up with SOLAS on apprenticeships for people under the age of 18. Education has always been a priority area under the living with Covid plan. Without getting ahead of ourselves again, I would hope that as the community transmission goes down, we can see those apprenticeships resume quickly.