National Training Fund (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee and Remaining Stages
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-17
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Pauline Tully (SF), Cultural and Educational Panel

I move amendment No. 1:
In page 3, between lines 9 and 10, to insert the following:
“Amendment of section 2 of National Training Fund Act 2000
1. Section 2 of the National Training Fund Act 2000 is amended by the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (14):
“(14) (a) Accounts of the Fund shall be prepared on an annual basis, in such form and (subject to paragraph (b)) in such manner as the Minister for Finance may direct, and the Comptroller and Auditor General shall examine, evaluate and certify every such account and a copy thereof, together with the report thereon of the Comptroller and Auditor General, shall be laid by the Minister before each House of the Oireachtas.
(b) The accounts specified in paragraph (a) shall specifically identify payments made pursuant to section 7(2B), and address how the making of such payments shall impact the funding available for schemes of the nature set out in section 7(2)(a) to (c) and the overall achievement of the purposes set out in section 7(2)(a) to (c) aforesaid.”.”.
As we know, this fund was established in 2000 and was paid into by businesses and employers to ensure the continued training and upskilling of employees and potential employees, including apprentices. I recognise that the fund has accumulated a considerable amount of money that needs to be unlocked and I agree with that unlocking. However, employers have concerns about the change of use of the fund. It was never supposed to be for the acquisition, upgrading, construction or reconstruction of facilities and premises, money for which would typically have come out of Exchequer capital funding. This is a deviation from what the fund was established for under the Act and it could rapidly deplete the surplus without delivering any real impact in skills development. That is the main concern of employers.
My amendment proposes a couple of small changes to the existing Act to ensure that the employer's voice is heard. Amendment No. 1 proposes to insert the following provision into section 2, "Accounts of the Fund shall be prepared on an annual basis, in such form and (subject to paragraph (b))". Accounts are prepared annually as it stands and are examined and certified by the Comptroller and Auditor General. My amendment provides that the Comptroller and Auditor General would evaluate the accounts as well and to include any funding spent that is different than heretofore. In this way, the accounts will specify what payments have been made under the new section, pursuant to section 7(2B) of the 2000 Act. The accounts will also "address how the making of such payments shall impact the funding available" for the schemes for which the fund was initially set up.
I am also proposing in section 7(5) of the Act a small change with respect to the performance, generally, by the Minister of his or her functions under this section. The Act says "from time to time" but I am providing that the Minister shall, "on an annual basis", consult with representatives of employees and employers as he or she considers appropriate. Within that, where there are payments proposed for the incoming year, they would be set out before the Houses of the Oireachtas, including details of those payments and how it is proposed to make them for the purposes set out in section 7(2B)(a) and 7(2B)(b) in the following 12 months. Again, the Minister will outline how the making of such payments will impact on the funding available for schemes of the nature set out in the original Act and show that the payments made for the purposes set out in section 7(2B) will not impede or frustrate funding for the achievement of the purposes set out in sections 7(2)(a) to (c).

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Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-12-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:28+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-17