Last week, I asked the Tánaiste a specific question in respect of apprentices being forced to pay college fees. The Tánaiste's reply was bordering on dishonesty. The specific question I asked the Tánaiste was whether the Minister for Education and Skills would meet representatives from the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union, the union representing these workers. They are not students, they are workers. The Tánaiste avoided that question. The Tánaiste said he would meet the Union of Students in Ireland, but that is not the body representing these workers. I am asking the question again. Will the Tánaiste ensure that a meeting is organised between the Minister for Education and Skills, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and the TEEU, the union representing workers who have been affected by the cuts in their fees?

This is a serious issue for these 7,500 apprentices. This is part of their training and education, something the Tánaiste should be supporting as a Minister. They are not workers who earn €750 per week. Far from it, most of them are on the minimum wage or less. They do not get paid during the college term since they are on a FÁS trainee allowance during that period and therefore they cannot afford to pay these fees. Will the Tánaiste organise a meeting with the TEEU effectively and as quickly as possible to discuss seriously the reinstating of these college fees, pending the major question he raised last week about the Minister for Education and Skills looking down the road at apprentices being broadened out and so on?

I recall the question Deputy Joan Collins asked me last week. She asked me if the Minister for Education and Skills would meet representatives of the TEEU and the USI. The Minister was sitting beside me. He told me he had planned to meet the USI and I gave Deputy Collins that answer last week. It is a little unfair for Deputy Collins to twist that into a refusal to meet the TEEU. I do not run the diary of the Minister for Education and Skills. If representatives from the TEEU want to meet the Minister for Education and Skills I imagine they are perfectly capable of arranging a meeting with him.

This Government has a long-standing policy of meeting trade unions, student unions and bodies that represent people who have difficulties and grievances. I do not expect there will be any difficulty in a meeting being arranged with the Minister for Education and Skills. There is no necessity for Deputy Collins to elevate it into some kind of refusal on the part of the Minister for Education and Skills to meet them.

Up to last Thursday the TEEU had requested a meeting with the Minister and had heard no reply. I raised the matter last week and the Minister for Education and Skills said he would meet the Union of Students in Ireland, a body not representing these workers. A week has gone by. I spoke to representatives of the union some 15 minutes ago to confirm that the Minister had not contacted them at their request. He still has not replied to them. If the Tánaiste stands up for these workers' rights and conditions, then would he please arrange for the Minister for Education and Skills to meet the union representing these workers? It is a matter of "Yes" or "No". Will the Tánaiste consider reinstating the fees? Then the union will know where it stands in respect of this Government.

I do not see that there is an issue here.

There is an issue.

If the TEEU wants to meet the Minister for Education and Skills, it requests a meeting with the Minister and I imagine it can be arranged. If the Union of Students in Ireland wants to meet the Minister for Education and Skills about the issue, similarly, it will ask the Minister about the arranging of that meeting. No Minister in this Government is refusing to meet representative bodies on issues that are of concern to them. I do not see that there is any difficulty whatever in a meeting being arranged with the Minister for Education and Skills. I suggest that if there is an issue then it should be pursued directly with the Minister for Education and Skills.