Apprenticeship Programmes
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-02
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James Lawless (FF), Kildare North

I think that is fair. We are trying through Government policy to encourage people at different life stages to enter the apprenticeship journey. I agree that it is not just young people coming out of school and going into apprenticeships any more. There are people crossing over. I met a number of apprentices, including people mid-career and at mid-life stages, some of whom had families and other commitments, so I get that. It is true, though, that if you take the usual alternative scenario of a full-time higher education course, you could have a flat with four people sharing together - two apprentices and two students - and the apprentices will be getting €7 or €8 an hour while the students will not be getting anything per hour. If we look at the alternative pathways, apprentices are being paid something as they go through and that increases in line with their training. There is a balance as well, because the employer has to be incentivised to take on the apprentice. For any trainee, they are probably costing more at the start than they are giving back in terms of useful output, given that it takes a while for them to become productive in their workforce.
We engage with the trade unions all the time and have a framework in place where the trade unions sit down and set rates in partnership with the employers and the educational framework. That is the model we have followed to date.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-02/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:14+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-02