National Training Fund (Amendment) Bill 2025: Second Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-11
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James Lawless (FF), Kildare North

It is good to have agreement at the outset, indeed. I am delighted to be here to present the Bill, which amends the National Training Fund Act 2000. The Bill was published on 10 October and concluded its passage through the Dáil on 3 December. I welcome the support received in the Dáil for the Bill, which aims to provide capital funding from the National Training Fund, NTF, for the purposes of providing and improving facilities for training and skills development. Effectively, the fund has been a very useful instrument available to the training system for some time and this looks to the remit of it and allows it to be used for slightly more competencies and capabilities that enhance the purposes for which it is intended, which is the provision of skills for those in employment and facilitate lifelong learning, to provide training for those who wish to acquire skills to take up employment and provide information on skills requirements in the economy.
As the relevant Minister I am responsible for the overall management, monitoring and evaluation of the fund, while my colleague the Minister for Finance manages and controls the investment account. The fund is financed through a levy on employers that is collected through the PRSI employers’ contribution. Currently the NTF levy is set at 1% of reckonable earnings and that was increased in budgets 2017, 2018, 2019 up to 2020 by 0.1% and now sits at 1%. One of the key priorities of the fund is to strengthen and shape existing and develop new higher education, further education and training, FET, provision to ensure alignment with workforce reskilling, upskilling and lifelong learning requirements . This is essential to deliver on the talent needs of the economy and strengthen Ireland’s competitive position and reputation for an agile, responsive, and highly skilled workforce.
The accumulated surplus of the NTF at the end of 2024 was approximately €1.77 billion and during 2024 consideration was given to how the surplus could be effectively accessed and utilised to meet the existing and future skills needs for employees, those seeking employment and employers, together with addressing the funding needs for further and higher education within the spending parameters of the annual budget. Budget 2025 delivered a total NTF funding package of €1.485 billion over a six-year period for the tertiary sector, including €885 million current funding including increasing funding for higher education by a further €150 million per annum by 2030 and one-off current funding for the tertiary sector, including the areas of skills and apprenticeships. It also included a €600 million capital uplift to enable skills development, including facilities, in areas such as healthcare, veterinary skills, further education skills, supporting universal access to skills provision and across the research sector, including an increase in the PhD stipend. A further €50 million was then made available through the national development plan, NDP, review process for research and development, bringing the total capital package to €650 million. It is important to note that the NTF expenditure increases general government expenditure and can only be accommodated within the fiscal strategy agreed by Government. The NTF surplus funding package, therefore, is accomplished within those ceilings.
During the proposals being formalised in 2024, legal advice was sought on funding capital expenditure from the NTF. That legal advice noted that an amendment to the National Training Fund Act would be required to facilitate capital expenditure on land and infrastructure being part of that fund. Legal advice was further sought during the drafting of the Bill on whether an amendment of the Act was required to facilitate core funding for higher education and research innovation expenditure and the legal advice was received that an amendment was not necessary to facilitate enhanced higher education and research funding once the schemes developed met the purposes of the Act, which is the key point. They all do, they are consistent and the original purpose of the Act is not being amended in any way. The Bill, therefore, makes minimal amendments to the original parent Act of 2000. It merely provides for capital expenditure from the NTF. That will ensure that the new NTF expenditure announced in budget 2025 can be provided from 2026 onwards. This will provide key educational training facilities, opportunities for employees and opportunities for those seeking employment. The funding will also assist in meeting existing and future skills needs for employers. The NTF is a strategic national asset for reskilling and upskilling our workforce and the funding package of nearly €1.5 billion will deliver substantial and impactful investment to deliver the critical skills necessary for the 21st century.
I will recap on the main provisions of the Bill, which provides for minimal amendments for the parent Act. It does not amend in any way the purpose of the NTF Act, which is to fund schemes established to raise the skills of those in employment, or provide training to those who wish to acquire skills for the purposes of taking up employment or to provide information relating to existing and likely future requirements for skills in the economy. The Bill includes sections as follows. Section 1 relates to the amendment of section 7 of the National Training Fund Act. The section provides for the insertion of a new section 7(2B) to provide that payments from the National Training Fund in respect of a scheme may include payments in respect of the acquisition of lands, premises, furniture or equipment and the upgrading, construction or reconstruction, including repair and maintenance, of premises. It is important to note these payments must be made in accordance with a scheme to raise the skills of those in employment, to provide training to those who wish to acquire skills for the purposes of taking up employment or to provide information in relation to existing, or likely future, requirements for skills in the economy. Any amendments under this Act and any capital expenditure is entirely consistent and in harmony with the aims of the Act as set out in the parent Act and as remain unchanged in these amendments.
Section 2 has the Short Title and commencement and the usual necessary protocols.
I listened carefully during the recent Dáil debates and exchanges. I thank colleagues across that House for their support for this legislation. I am confident that any issues that were ventilated have been addressed in the sense the amendments here are minimal and the €1.5 billion budget package will be enabled for full support to the sector and will allow that very necessary and important expenditure from the NTF. One concern raised in the Dáil was that capital expenditure from the NTF may be used for purposes other than for skills development. I reassure the House that the purposes of the NTF Act will not be amended by the Bill at all and that any capital funding utilised for the NTF can only be used and will only be used in accordance with the legislation, that is, for training, upskilling, reskilling, or identifying skills needs. The legislation does not permit the funding to be provided from the NTF for any other purpose than those I have just mentioned.
There was some mention of retrofitting premises and refurbishment of various buildings. They key point on that is any building refurbishment or refit will only be to provide a training space for those seeking to acquire skills for the purpose of employment and consistent with the needs of the Act. We need to provide facilities. We cannot train people in an empty space or in thin air so it is important we have state-or-the-art leading facilities and modernised facilities and equipment to conduct the training. That is a key part of the reason we have capital expenditure. In some cases, that may involve retrofitting an older building to bring it back into productive use. I have had the privilege of visiting a number of training sites in my time as Minister all over the country where some older buildings had exactly that experience of being retrofitted and brought back into productive use. I commend all the organisations, including the education and training boards, ETBs, where they have done that and that has enabled the creation of many more apprenticeships, for example, in many sectors. We have consulted widely, including with the National Skills Council and the high-level skills implementation group and stakeholders such as IBEC, ISME, and others on this legislation and to reassure them on some of the matters I have mentioned. This is something that has been called for for many years - funding the future, the deficit, the universities and skills provision. This will finally unlock that fund for the benefit of the higher and further education sectors. It is critical legislation and I commend it to the House.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-12-11/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:27+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-11