My Department has responsibility for the National Minimum Wage Act 2000. The Act prescribes the minimum hourly rate of pay for the majority of employees in Ireland subject to a small number of exemptions. Apprentices are excluded from the Act and from the right to receive the national minimum wage. Apprentices are excluded from the National Minimum Wage Act in recognition of the unique nature of apprenticeships and the fact that a long-established practice for determining rates, which adequately protects apprentices, exists. Apprenticeships offer a unique combination of education and work experience. When the national minimum wage was first introduced, it was recognised that providing an exemption for apprentices would promote apprenticeships and encourage employers to focus on training apprentices and offering opportunities to them while at the same time recognising the cost to employers in terms of time invested and productivity forgone. Apprentices are employees and all of the 78 apprenticeship programmes are undertaken under a contract of employment. For the majority of apprenticeships, the rate of pay is agreed between the apprentice and the employer with the employer paying the apprentice during both on-the-job and off-the-job training elements. For the 25 craft apprenticeship programmes, the minimum rates of pay applying under the employment contract are either agreed within the relevant sector or are set out in legally binding sectoral employment orders recommended by the Labour Court. I know that considerations regarding apprentice wages may affect learner and employer demand for apprenticeships. Wage levels may present a barrier to entry to apprenticeships for some individuals. Conversely, wage costs and training costs may discourage some employers from hiring apprentices. We must consider this issue very carefully. While I take the point about apprentices in training, the CSO has reported that over 90% of apprentices who qualified in 2020 were in employment two years later with median weekly earnings of €935 and over €48,600 annually.

Sentiment score: 0.04

The Government is taking important steps with regard to supporting the apprenticeship programme. We have seen huge investment in recent years. In budget 2026, we allocated over €78 million to the apprenticeship programme. This investment is delivering significant results. We have seen annual apprenticeship registrations increase from 5,326 in 2020 to 9,352 at the end of 2024. We are very ambitious to drive that to 12,500 by 2030 and, indeed, we have worked with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to try to support that. Our focus is on supporting entry and ensuring that we have retention and completion. The Government's new updated action plan on careers in construction for 2026 is an important element of that. It specifically looks at barriers to participation, especially for women, but also for those who are under-represented and those we can include into the construction sector because, as the Deputy said earlier, we need to ramp up the number of apprenticeships coming through.

Sentiment score: 0.35

We are all in agreement that we need to address the construction skills gap and that is very much central to the Government's strategy. We do not want to price young people or employers out of the system and that is important to reflect on. We are investing in career pathways, educational access and targeted incentives. We are very much focused on building confidence in careers within the construction sector through apprenticeships and we want to do that. As I said earlier, apprentices are not at the bottom of the pay scale when it comes to their transition with a skill that they have developed over their apprentice programme. Most who qualify are on over €49,000 per year two years post entry into the sector. That is reflective of the programme they undertake, but also their post-qualification position and what that means. We need to do more and that is why we are continuing to invest with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science on the craft apprenticeship programme to address the skills gap across the sector.

Sentiment score: 0.25

I thank the Deputy for her question. The programme for Government sets out a strong enterprise and fiscal framework that prioritises economic and employment growth, with a target of creating 300,000 extra jobs by 2030. I am pleased to report that the Irish labour market saw sustained employment growth, rising labour force participation and record job numbers last year, indicative of a resilient performance. In total, over 2.8 million people are now employed in Ireland. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.7% in January, broadly consistent with full employment. The youth unemployment rate, for those between the ages of 15 and 24, increased slightly to 11.8% in January but remains well below the EU and euro area averages. It is not unusual for youth unemployment rates to be higher than those of older cohorts. This can be due to a lack of relevant work experience among youth workers, skills mismatches, or difficulties experienced in moving between education and employment, with clear seasonal and demographic patterns. However, many of these factors are temporary in nature. As young people widen their professional networks and gain broader work and life experience, their employment prospects improve. It is also important that we focus on employment as well as unemployment, with the former clearly under the remit of my Department. The statistics show that we created a lot of jobs right across the economy last year and that our employment rates for young people are very high by any margin, certainly in comparison to our European peers. It is important to stress that huge numbers of our young people are in education or training as well as in employment. I can point the Deputy to CSO data for this very subject, in particular the CSO data on a series of measures in regard to the numbers of people not in employment, education or training, the so-called not in education, employment or training, NEETs, rate. In 2023, for Ireland, the rate was 8.6% relative to an average of 12.1% across Europe. We are doing so much right here in creating opportunities for young people.

Sentiment score: 0.23

I disagree entirely with the suggestion that Government is not doing anything and is complacent on youth employment. We can see from the CSO's recent data that it has clearly identified a temporary demographic and seasonal effect, while there is also a surge in young people entering the labour force for the very first time. That is not a collapse in youth opportunity; it is, in one sense, supported through the creation by this Government, across many sectors, of job opportunities within engineering, green technology and construction. We have seen a huge number of new opportunities being created, even in 2025. We are also seeing that most of the recent increases in youth employment affect those without post-secondary qualifications. That is why we have, as a Government, invested in programmes such as Springboard+ and MicroCreds and expanded the apprenticeship network. As I said earlier, we have an ambitious programme to continue to invest in apprenticeships to ensure that every young person can transition from learning and earn the right skills to enter the workforce correctly.

Sentiment score: 0.32

I agree with some of the Deputy's suggestions in regard to continued investment in key actions under Pathways to Work. I know that needs to provide enhanced supports for young people and jobseekers. The establishment of the employment and youth engagement charter is important to bring employers and young people together to tackle the barriers in regard to getting into the workforce. As I said earlier, we need to continue to strengthen the partnership between our further education and private employment sectors and consider how the Government can support that. We need to break the cycle whereby, if there is no experience, people are not entitled to a job, or if there is no job, there can be no experience. This is about aligning policy with education reform. We are making an important partnership by expanding flexibility around blended forms of learning and, as I said earlier, the apprenticeship model. We will continue to do that.

Sentiment score: 0.21