Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is very important that the Senator should do so. These matters must be supervised and overseen and it is important to provide an update. The requirement to give an update always focuses the minds of civil servants in ensuring targets are reached. Not every target can be reached but a failure to do so must be explained and there must be a clear pathway to meeting it.

The response from the Department is focused very much on the professional side, including cybersecurity, accounting and so on. Those gaps are there but the Senator is correct to highlight the importance of trades and having apprenticeship programmes in that field. I joined the Minister recently in visiting some of the apprenticeships programmes in place in my constituency, which are training young people and retraining people at different stages of their career. The opportunities are always there to work and the apprenticeship programme offers a pathway at any stage of life. I thank the Senator for raising this matter.