The normal waiting times for off-the-job training in the education and training boards range from three to six months. Any apprentices waiting longer than six months for phase 2 training are part of the phase 2 backlog and considered to be waiting overlong for training. In July 2023, 6,166 apprentices were waiting six months or longer. In August 2024, that figure had dropped to 2,484. We are doing everything we can to try to address the backlog. We launched a recruitment campaign across several media channels in No…

I will ask officials in the Department to furnish the Deputy with the information he requires. I do not have the details on a national level or at micro level regarding Cork. I will ask for those to be furnished to the Deputy as well.

The DARE scheme is operated by the Irish Universities Association, IUA, on behalf of the higher education institutions which set the policy criteria for the scheme. Applications to the scheme are submitted to the Central Applications Office which co-ordinates the scheme for participating institutions. All matters pertaining to admissions to higher education are a function of the higher education institutions themselves, which, as the Deputy knows, are autonomous academic bodies. Therefore, the operation, funding an…

I am sharing time with Deputy James O’Connor. I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on the budget, which we were apprised of this week by the Ministers, Deputies Donohoe and Chambers. I congratulate both Ministers on their presentations and in particular, my colleague Deputy Chambers who presented his first budget to the House as Minister for Finance and, indeed, our deputy leader. By any yardstick, we need to stand back and look at the breadth and scale of the budget that was unveiled and give due recognition…

I thank the Senator for giving us the opportunity to provide an update to the House on the replacement 92-bed community nursing unit at St. Vincent's Hospital in Athy, County Kildare. As the Senator has quite rightly said, the hospital was first built in 1844. It provides rehabilitation, respite and extended care to male and female residents, the majority of whom are over 65 years of age. The standard of care delivered to residents in public units is generally very high. We recognise that many of our community hosp…

I thank Senator Wall for raising this issue. The Government has delivered unprecedented levels of investment in our health services in recent years. There should be no doubt that the investment in health infrastructure is a substantial priority for Government. Work is progressing across the country under the HIQA compliance programme to replace, upgrade and refurbish our current stock of community nursing units in response to the introduction of HIQA's national residential care standards for older people. The capit…

We are legislating for that next week.

I thank the Deputies for their contributions. As the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, outlined, the Government agrees that everyone, including lodgers, should have a sense of security and protection in his or her home. Traditionally, where people share their home with a lodger, both parties benefit from the inherent goodwill that underpins digs arrangements. It is possible for digs arrangements to be formalised by way of a licence agreement between the parties, but this is a matter of choice for the parties themse…

The Department continues to oversee the implementation of a plan put in place by the national apprenticeship office to significantly increase apprenticeship capacity and respond to the rise in craft apprenticeship registrations that are the result of the buoyant construction sector. The number of craft apprentices waiting for six months or longer for phase 2 of their job training has decreased by 42% since the implementation of the plan, from 5,319 in October 2023 to 3,071 in May 2024. Craft apprenticeships are des…

As it is a priority question, the Deputy will have the opportunity to contribute again. The matter is topical. The Deputy mentioned that it is leaving certificate examination time and that people are looking at their various options. People will look at the time apprenticeships take to complete. Two programmes are unfortunately taking longer than 48 months. The duration of craft apprenticeship programmes is four years or 48 months and two are taking longer, electrical instrumentation and pipe fitting. Electrical in…

I will request updated information on the numbers. The Deputy has researched some of her own numbers. Suffice it to say that an integral part of our action plan for apprenticeships is that they be rolled out across the Civil Service and the public service. That includes local authorities. The Department wants to see that action executed by our local authorities, by the Civil Service and by the public service, but the Deputy must remember - she raised the example of craft apprentices in the local authority sector - …

Providing training opportunities for prospective learners and career changers in County Donegal is key to ensuring the north-west regional economy has access to the talent and skills it needs to fully realise its economic and societal potential. Donegal Education and Training Board has apprentice training facilities in Gaoth Dobhair and Letterkenny. Training is provided in key skills areas such as electrical, plumbing, carpentry and joinery, metal fabrication, motor mechanics, and electronic security systems. Since…

In relation to the craft apprenticeship at ATU, I reiterate that phases 4 and 6 capacity for electrical apprenticeships has grown from 144 in the 2022-23 academic year to 384 this year. As I outlined, we are increasing capacity to deliver across electrical, refrigeration and metal fabrication at both Letterkenny and Killybegs. Since the start of this session, we have been discussing mainly craft apprenticeships but we also have consortia-led new apprenticeships. In Donegal, in 2025, the Atlantic Technological Unive…

The number of apprentices in Ireland has grown significantly, from 17,800 in 2019 to over 27,000 today. However, our priority, consistent with the Deputy's question, is to make apprenticeships attractive for even more young people, given our skills and workforce needs under priority Government strategies. The Department's Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025 aims to promote apprenticeship as a route to valuable qualifications and high-quality jobs and careers. The National Apprenticeship Office is continuing to…

As I said in earlier exchanges with other Deputies, the Department is aware of the challenges and backlogs. We have put significant resources into dealing with the backlog, which is falling significantly. We will continue to work on that. I appreciate the Deputy's point regarding apprentices having to travel distances to training centres. We are working on this issue too and allocating significant resources to developing more training centres and hiring more instructors and tutors. The Deputy asked about night clas…

The Deputy's suggestion has merit and we will highlight it in the Department. As I said, the Deputy should bear in mind we have increased the capacity of the State to deliver off-the-job training. That came at a cost and there are challenges in relation to that in terms of recruiting adequate numbers of suitably qualified tutors and trainers. They were asked to take on an additional workload to address the backlog issue and, to their credit, they did so. Going a step further by asking them to do this work out of re…

A proposal was issued to staff representatives last year to establish a new grade of adult educator, with a standardised pay scale aligned with the Youthreach resource person scale. A number of issues arose in subsequent negotiations with staff representatives on the implementation of the proposal. These issues have since been resolved and agreement reached on a revised offer to tutors employed by education and training boards in adult, community and further education settings. Existing adult education tutors have …

I thank the Deputy and will make a couple of other observations. The cost of this deal have been estimated at €2.6 million assuming all tutors assimilate. However, the actual cost will be dependent on the numbers of tutors who opt to assimilate into the new grade. We have asked the ETBs to maintain records to facilitate the identification of the costs. The Deputy asked about the future. The implementation of these arrangements will be fully reviewed after 12 months to ensure that we can learn from it. I also want t…

I do not have that information to hand at the moment but will get the data for the Deputy as requested.

You are all very quiet over there.