Cllr: Address the shortage of mechanics

Apprentice mechanics should be qualified and given papers as fast as possible to address a nationwide shortage in the trade, a county councillor has said.

Speaking at a recent meeting of Cork County Council, Fine Gael’s John Paul O’Shea asked the council to write to Minister for Further and Higher Education, Simon Harris TD, asking to accelerate apprenticeships within the education system that may be delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said he had been contacted by a number of private organisations who are finding it very difficult to recruit mechanics at the moment.

Cllr O’Shea said: “Due to Covid-19 there have been delays in people returning to college to complete their term.

“There are a lot of apprentices that are actually on year 3 and year 4 but they haven't completed their second year in college yet.

“We're out of Covid-19 now and we need to allocate resources to ensure that we do get them qualified and out with papers as quickly as possible.”

Earlier this month, Jack Chambers, Minister of State at the Department of Transport announced that 55 mechanics had been recruited to tackle the waiting times for NTCs.

Cllr O’Shea continued: “That didn't go down very well because we don't have the mechanics in the system. We can't take mechanics out of the system at the moment without making sure they're available for other roles as well.”

Independent Cllr John Healy supported Cllr O’Shea’s motion but suggested the shortage of mechanics is also connected with unattractive pay and low apprenticeship completion rates.

He said: “We'll have to think outside the box if we hope to get apprentices. There’s no way anyone will become an apprentice mechanic when they can get a job in a factory at twice the money.”

He suggested apprentice mechanics excluded from paying tax for the period of their apprenticeship: “There's actually people coming in as apprentices and they're leaving after 6 months because the money isn’t there and it is there in other jobs.”