National Training Fund (Amendment) Bill 2025: Second Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-11
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Laura Harmon (LAB), Industrial and Commercial Panel

The Minister is very welcome. It is good to have this debate on Second Stage in the Seanad. The Labour Party is broadly supportive of the Bill and has long argued for better use of the NTF surplus. The budget 2026 documentation shows a projected surplus of €230 million for 2025 and a similar surplus of €226 million for 2026, further adding to the surplus. It is important that we utilise the surplus in the best way possible.
During 2024, consideration was given to how the NTF surplus could be accessed and utilised to meet existing and future skills needs for employees, those seeking employment and employers, while also addressing the funding needs for further and higher education within the spending parameters of the annual budget. In budget 2025, the Government announced the following funding to come from the NTF up to 2030: €650 million by way of a core funding package for higher education, increasing funding by a further €150 million by 2030. Also announced were a "€600 million capital uplift to enable skills development, including facilities in the areas of healthcare and veterinary skills and further education skills; supporting universal access to skill provision; and the research sector (including an increase in the PhD stipend)" and "€235 million for the tertiary sector as one-off current funding, including skills and apprenticeships".
The Labour Party has long argued, since 2017, that the NTF should be progressively increased to fund further and higher education, expand the social safety net and provide upskilling opportunities for workers. Despite Government plans to spend €1.5 billion of the accumulated NTF surplus, which is expected to be close to €2 billion by 2030, across a range of measures, the NTF will still have an annual surplus of €230 million in 2025. The Labour Party has long advocated the allocation of this sustainable revenue to fund further and higher education, which provides the skills and talent that drive our economy. We would develop this as a permanent feature of our employment and social protection safety net. We would have a permanent short-term wage subsidy scheme to support workers and businesses if a downturn or recession strikes. This short-term working scheme, which we call Obair Gearr, would protect employees from lay-offs. Another element would be State subsidies when companies encounter difficulties and need time to adapt. This would ensure SMEs could retain staff and skills.
Importantly, as with the German scheme, our scheme would guarantee that each worker would have an individual training or upskilling plan to improve productivity and prepare workers for potential opportunities. Artificial intelligence is a phenomenon to which workers will need to adapt. The measure would be funded through the Social Insurance Fund and the NTF and act as an automatic stabiliser in future recessions. It does not have an immediate upfront cost.
The Labour Party would also unlock a portion of the surplus in the National Training Fund to allow workers who are mid-career to stop and switch and pursue upskilling or a new career direction. This would be managed by SOLAS and be demand driven where a worker has a minimum of ten years of continuous social insurance contributions, inclusive of credited leave.
When in work, upskilling opportunities are most often controlled by the employer. We want to give workers more personal freedom to choose for themselves after making years of contributions by funding skills vouchers and free part-time third level courses from the National Training Fund.
As I said, the Labour Party is broadly supportive of this Bill.

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Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:27+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-11