Gareth Scahill (Fine Gael)

Like my colleague before me, I welcome Senator Andrews back. I cannot wait to hear the stories about his ordeal. It is good to see him return safely.

Following on from the budget, I want to acknowledge the €130 million in grants for older people for housing adaptations; the €140 million for the retrofitting of social homes; the €558 million in funding for residential and community energy schemes from the SEAI, including the warmer homes scheme; the better energy home scheme; the national home energy upgrade and retrofitting scheme; and the community energy grant scheme. In tandem with welcoming that funding, I acknowledge that the Department of further and higher education has allocated €65 million in funding to ensure the critical skills requirement for the delivery of housing and infrastructure, as set out in the national development plan, is achieved. This funding will allow for increased apprenticeship registrations and will help us to move forward on targets to achieve 12,500 apprenticeships annually by 2030, as set out in the programme for Government.

In that regard, I call for a debate in this House, possibly inviting the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, or the Minister, Deputy James Lawless, to discuss how we are going to achieve that. The allocation of this money is much needed, including for apprenticeship places. When I looked back at the apprenticeship review for the year, I saw that last year the increase in plasterers was 3%, the increase in plumbers was 13%, and the increase in apprenticeships in wood manufacturing and finishing was 3%. We need a targeted focus on increasing the number of apprenticeship places in order to achieve the targets for the 2030 plan. I also call for regional balance in the location of the apprenticeship places.