Further and Higher Education
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-05
============================================================

Kieran O'Donnell (FG), Limerick City

With regard to the ongoing work of the task force, I mentioned the RED C survey on public attitudes to traditional skills. There was also an audit of traditional skills courses on the island in 2025. More particularly, there is an economic assessment of the demand for traditional skills, which goes back to the point Deputy Callaghan made. The report on the public attitude to the provision of courses is complete and the demand survey is in its final stages. That very much feeds into this. I have no doubt that, like Deputy Callaghan, the Leas-Chathaoirleach, Deputy McGuinness, will have a keen interest in the Kilkenny and Carlow Education and Training Board progressing its application for a national centre for traditional building skills with the Department of further and higher education. As I have said, the Department and the Minister gave the go-ahead in February 2026. The board will be in a position to appoint a design team for this important centre later this year.

---

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/dail/2026-03-05/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:44+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-05