Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach for his warm tribute to former Labour Senator Pat Magner. He was a Corkonian but he very much made Dublin his home. He was a three-time Senator and made an enormous contribution to the Labour Party. It is certainly a huge loss for the party, with the years of commitment he brought to it. I offer our sincere sympathies to Mr. Magner's wife Anne and their children, family and wide and extensive circle of friends.

I follow Senator Ó Donnghaile's comments about the Cathaoirleach's contribution last Thursday. There was a real sense of pride in having Senator Buttimer as our Cathaoirleach, particularly with his comments to President Biden, marking the achievements of our country with regard to social issues but also marking President Biden's leadership on those issues. I thank the Cathaoirleach for that.

I congratulate the Leader on her day and wish her the very best this Saturday.

I request that we ask the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to come to the House to talk about the system of apprenticeships. While we must acknowledge that there has been major progress in expanding the range of apprenticeships on offer, there are real issues with regard to how some of those apprenticeships are organised, particularly with the non-payment in the educational period, and the issue of retention in certain sectors, especially construction. There is also the issue of uncommenced apprenticeships that were mooted for development, particularly in 2017. One of the uncommenced apprenticeships that has come to my attention is in baking. We know that bakeries are a vital part of many of our towns and cities. We can all wax lyrical about how important they are, yet the State is not doing anything to ensure we have a supply of skilled labour into that sector. In Dublin alone, we have had a significant number of bakeries close in recent years because it is so difficult to get trained staff. Baking is one of the 27 apprenticeships that were mooted for development back in 2017 but we have only seen a share of those go on to be developed.

There is a real issue, particularly when looking at labour shortages in certain sectors, and some employers are increasingly calling for migrant work permits to be looked at. Migrant permits play an important role in our labour market but we also need to look at how we ensure a sustainable supply of labour into certain sectors. There is a particularly acute issue in baking, furniture-making and other sectors. There is a serious role in this area for the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if we are to ensure we have sufficient skilled labour in these sectors in the coming years.