The Minister knows the importance of increasing apprenticeship capacity right around the State, especially in the context of housing need. He is well aware of the proposal made by Galway and Roscommon Education and Training Board, ETB, to SOLAS in respect of an apprenticeship centre in Roscommon, really well located, bang in the centre of Roscommon town, with really good public transport links. Of course, the site the board has selected and identified has the benefit of having buildings in place, so there is the immediate creation of workshops and also the potential to grow. I understand the Minister has to wait for the correspondence from SOLAS and I appreciate that, and I know constituency colleagues have raised this with him and he has talked positively about it, but what is the typical timeframe within which he would expect to receive that information from SOLAS?

I thank the Deputy for that very fair question. I would expect to receive it in the coming weeks. There is a lot of work going between Galway-Roscommon ETB and SOLAS, and I thank them for that. We cannot provide enough apprenticeship capacity - the more, the better - and we need to make sure every part of the country is covered to make it accessible for people in the regions as well. I am positively disposed to this and look forward to receiving the application in the coming weeks.