Apprenticeships: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-10 ============================================================ Joe Conway (IND), Cultural and Educational Panel Ar an gcéad dul síos, cuirim fáilte chaoin roimh an Aire Stáit atá i láthair anocht agus roimh na cuairteoirí sa Ghailearaí thall ansin. In adverting to the people in the Distinguished Visitors Gallery, I draw attention to the blueprint for what we would see as a successful apprenticeship. It is novel in some ways. I thank Samantha Long, our capa in the Seanad Independent Group, for suggesting and organising the invitation to Katelyn to be here. We can advertise and promote apprenticeships at great expense and at some length, but when it is fixed onto a personage and a personality, and somebody who is in the limelight and is conscious of an awful lot of positive images for young people, it says more than all the money that is spent on advertising campaigns. I am delighted not just to have Katelyn here. There are many other stories there. Steve, for example, made sure she was here tonight. She has a hectic schedule. Of course, possibly the unsung heroes of the apprenticeship are John and Noreen, who afforded Katelyn the apprenticeship. A succinct deal is done between a person who wants to enter a trade, learn and perfect it and graduate from it with high levels of qualifications. Speaking of high levels of qualifications, a couple of years ago, I had the privilege of being the Mayor of Waterford. One of the pleasant jobs I had was that I was asked to go to the South East Technological University to confer degrees on a class of apprentices. There were approximately 80 of them and the vast majority were sparkies, electricians. If there was a small downside to the joyous occasion, it was that almost exclusively the graduates that evening were male. That tells its own story. Senator Ryan adverted to the fact that the trends are going in the right direction, from 1,000 to 3,000. In the overall context of the numbers of apprenticeships, however, we have serious questions to consider about the gender balance in apprenticeships and changing the mindset of the nation about apprenticeships. It goes back to schools. I often say, as a former teacher, that schools are far from perfect organisations. They do an awful lot of good but in the whole area of career guidance, counselling and outlining career paths for their pupils, perhaps there is a reticence in the career guidance module that does not give due credit or gravitas to the path of apprenticeships and what they can do for the economy. I talked earlier to John, who told me that tradesmen, electricians and all sorts of people in the trades and skills sector are flying from Dublin on Sunday evening and working week on, week off and doing amazing work all around Europe. They are, in a very practical way, the new skills ambassadors for the progressive economy we have. They are saying more than the Ministers who will go abroad in a few weeks' time to tell their stories. The practical work being done by Irish skills in those economies is an unsung tale of patriotism and economic input. Ba mhaith liom an t-éacht atá déanta ag Katelyn Cummins mar Rose of Tralee agus an jab atá á dhéanamh aici a lua. Níl mórán suime agam sa damhsa ach chuala mé ó mo bhean chéile go bhfuil Katelyn Cummins go sármhaith ag damhsa. Geallaim di go mbeidh mé ag féachaint ar an gclár an Domhnach seo chugainn. This House is certainly not remiss. I have been in the House for only one year and one week and over the past year, we have had two evenings of debate on apprenticeships and their importance. On the most recent occasion, we were visited by the Minister, Deputy James Lawless, and this time we are joined by the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin. The Minister of State outlined the work that she and the Minister, Deputy Lawless, are doing in relation to apprenticeships and many other spheres of higher education and it is a catalogue of very impressive work. I do not often say that to Ministers who come in but it is very impressive. Deputy Harkin's heart is in the right place on this. Go n-éirí go geal léi san obair atá os a comhair. The antithesis of this, that is, poor planning in apprenticeships, can be seen in the news from our neighbouring economy that I read last weekend. The apprenticeship module in the UK is being cut from 18 months to three. I fail to see what can be done to make an impression on apprenticeships, the economy or the skills shortage in the UK if apprenticeship programmes as short as three months are to be rolled out. The programme here can take apprenticeships to the level of a full degree, level 8, and even to levels 9 and 10. That gives status and self-esteem to people in trades that were often looked at as the laggards of the economy. There are now 78 different disciplines in the apprenticeship system. It is the model for a successful economy. I was very pleased to hear the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, mention skills for green initiatives. From the weather we have had for the last 30 days or so, we can see the difficulties we have with the climate. We will be talking about that later, during the next debate. It is wonderful that there are apprenticeships focused on the green economy and green skill sets. Being progressive and earning a good living does not have to be about "Drill, baby, drill". It is far more likely to be about "Skills, baby, skills". That is what we are focusing on in this debate, the plenitude of skills that are being encouraged by the apprenticeship model and the enlightened message Government is sending. I sound like a Fianna Fáil representative here----- --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-10/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:36+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-10