I thank the Deputy for raising an important point. As we all know, Ireland has one of the highest participation rates in third level education in Europe. Every year, the Higher Education Authority conducts a survey of graduates nine months after graduation. Over 70,000 graduates from the class of 2022 completed the survey to provide a really good picture of what graduates are doing in their early-stage careers. The survey has taken place each year since 2017 with the exception of the class of 2019, who were not sur…

It was 70,000.

I thank Deputy Farrell but I think the statistics paint a different picture. They are not my statistics but those of the Central Statistics Office. The Deputy will probably have seen that they were revised upwards during the Christmas period. They show the number of Irish citizens returning to this country significantly outstrips the number of Irish citizens leaving this country. There is a narrative out there, a statistically false one, that more Irish citizens are leaving the country than are coming back. The Dep…

I definitely do not want to argue. While accepting neither of us has the specific figures in front of us, let us also accept that both of us believe and know that the Central Statistics Office has produced figures that show that more Irish citizens have returned to the country than left it in the period 2017 to 2022.

Due to the fact that the economy has recovered under the management of my party in government for many years, people now have an opportunity to come back to their country to get a job. That is a good thing-----

----but we can debate that on another day. Deputy Farrell is not wrong that housing remains the biggest challenge facing young people in this country. We can have a debate, as we do in this House all the time, about what the best solutions are in terms of providing opportunities. The fact that we are now seeing about 500 people purchase their first home every single week, the highest figure we have seen in many years, is an encouraging sign. That we now have schemes in place to get a deposit and bridge the gap betw…

I thank the Deputy for asking the question and raising this issue with me on a number of occasions. I thank him for being good and honourable enough to acknowledge other people like Councillor Moegie Maher, Senator Dolan and others who have worked on this. I acknowledge that everybody from Roscommon in this House has come together to try to make progress on this and to work very closely with the Galway and Roscommon Education and Training Board, GRETB. I thank them for their work on that. My officials and I are ver…

I agree with everything the Deputy said. I do not want this to drag on either. I obviously cannot be site-specific because of the process that needs to be gone through, but if I am asked whether I want to see apprenticeship provision in County Roscommon and want to help GRETB and SOLAS make that happen as a matter of urgency, I can say that I do. Right across the country, we are prioritising a massive increase in apprenticeship capacity. We just made an announcement in Dundalk today in relation to extra capacity fo…

I give the Deputy my word that I will keep a very close eye on this and take an active interest in providing apprenticeship places in Roscommon, working with the Deputy and Oireachtas colleagues. The Deputy is correct when he talks about mechanics. I was out recently at an event. The AA has an upskilling and reskilling workshop because the mechanic of today needs a very different skill set tomorrow. I think last year we saw more new electric vehicles, EVs, purchased than new petrol or diesel cars. That means the me…

I acknowledge that this is an issue the Deputy has championed and highlighted in this House for a long time. She has raised it on a number of occasions, including at Leaders' Questions. I acknowledge that. It is also an issue that has been dragging on for too long. I know that is very much the conviction of the adult education tutors and those who represent them. They play a central role in meeting learners' needs. The regularisation of the terms and conditions of tutors is a priority for me and my Department. Step…

I am looking forward to visiting Carlow College with Deputy Murnane O'Connor shortly. I thank both Deputies for raising this important issue. My understanding is that very good progress was made on agreeing the grades. I hope I did not suggest it, but this is not to suggest that the work an adult education tutor does is similar to another job. It is aligning the terms and conditions with other people working in the further education and training sector, which I think is appropriate. It is getting them into a regula…

I join with the Deputy in sending my condolences to the family of Lorcan McNamee and I understand from Deputy Harkin’s contribution the important contribution that he made in regard to adult education tutors. May he rest in peace. The proposal was for an increment to be awarded following the completion of 1,043 contact hours, rather than on the completion of 52 weeks worked. As I said, and for clarity, the unions contended that under section 9 of the Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act 2001, this requires …

I particularly thank Deputy Burke for arranging the very useful meeting that I had recently in regard to the SOLAS and ETB provision in Bishopstown, Cork. I found it very insightful to hear from people on the front line and thank those people working on the provision of apprenticeships for that work. Apprenticeship waiting times refer to individuals and the length of time that they are waiting to access training. Apprenticeships are national programmes and the equitable management of access to training means that a…

Well, of course, they are not the facts, because the facts show me-----

I am not doing this.

I am not doing this. I am not doing this shouting. If interest was measured in decibels, you would win the contest every time, but we do not need to shout and roar at each other. You asked me a question and I am going to answer it. You might listen. In the Cork training centre alone, there are 484 apprentices. In Munster Technological University, which is in Cork, there are 160. In Mallow College of Further Education, there are many multiples of the figures the Deputy has referenced. You are talking-----

No, hang on. You cannot stand up in Dáil Éireann as a representative of the people of Cork and tell them there are only a certain number of people in a programme when there are not.

Just stop. You are picking and choosing one phase in one programme.

Today, I will send the Deputy the number of apprentices in Cork. I will send it to him. I will send it to the Ceann Comhairle and we can all tell the truth in this place.

You do not need to send me my own figures. I have them.