I move: That Dáil Éireann resolves that the period of operation of sections 1 to 7 and 9 of the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2021 (No. 14 of 2021) be extended for a further period of six months, beginning on the 1st day of December, 2022 and ending on the 31st day of May, 2023. I am here to introduce a resolution on behalf of the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, to extend the sunset clause in the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2021. The extension of this Act will allow the hospitality sec…

On behalf of the Minister, I thank Deputies for their time and input on this matter. It is intended that the extension of the Act until 31 May 2023 will continue to provide clarity in respect of the provisions relating to outdoor dining for licenceholders, patrons and the Garda. It is clear that there is ongoing demand for the provision of outdoor dining. In the meantime, as I outlined earlier, work is progressing on the drafting of the sale of alcohol Bill, which will provide a long-term solution to the issue and …

I welcome the Ceann Comhairle back. I thank everybody in the House for this debate. In his opening statement, the Minister, Deputy Harris, mentioned that one of the areas in which real progress has been made is the sourcing of science advice. This is one of many areas where progress has been made in the research and innovation field. Deputy Naughten showed a particular interest in this topic at last year's debate and we are pleased to report the Department received more than 40 submissions to the recent public cons…

I thank Deputy Richmond for raising this matter as it gives me the opportunity to set out for the House the position with regard to UCD's decision. We are very aware of the difficulties faced by students trying to secure accommodation. It is an issue that we are actively pursuing and resolution is a high priority for the Department as a whole. In September 2021, the Government launched Housing for All, led by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. It set out a series of over 200 actions which will…

I thank the Deputy for his remarks and reassure him that this is a high priority issue for the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, so much so, as I alluded to in my opening remarks, that we now have a section within the Department that is dedicated to working with our HEIs to advance the provision of the much-needed student accommodation. That will be backed up by money. As I said previously, a number of initial projects are being discussed with a range of higher education …

I thank the Deputy for his question. We are making significant progress in realising the ambition of the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025. A key objective is to make apprenticeships more attractive to employers and learners and to ensure continued engagement. The progress to date includes: the establishment of the National Apprenticeship Office, the appointment of its first director and the initiation of its work plan; the removal of legislative barriers to the development of apprenticeship programmes in pr…

The Deputy rightly outlined the issues with retention rates in our action plan for apprenticeships. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform carried out a review of the cost of apprenticeships in 2019. It highlighted the need to standardise the cost data collection. Basically, inconsistent and decentralised reporting in areas such as costs and tracking of apprentices means that the information to support the assessment of spend on apprenticeship was unavailable, retention rates are not recorded centrally and…

We agree with the Deputy. The issue he raised is valid. It is something that we are conscious of and we have spoken to the National Apprenticeship Office and the director about making it a priority. The whole apprenticeship space has changed so much in the past number of years, even in terms of the new apprenticeships that have been added, particularly the consortia apprenticeships, which are a collaboration between the sectors, the employers in particular within the sectors and the training providers. We are all l…

I thank Deputy Leddin for his question. The Climate Action Plan 2021 is a detailed plan for taking decisive action to set us on a path to reach net zero emissions by no later than 2050. The plan contains key measures driving the creation of the new green jobs with new skills required to achieve climate action goals, including for renewable energy generation. The November 2021 Expert Group on Future Skills Needs report, Skills for Zero Carbon, identified the main occupational roles essential to meet Ireland’s renewa…

I also want to mention to the Deputy in the context of this question the area of Skillnet Ireland. We have a Green Tech Skillnet, which is an enterprise-led network facilitating the workforce and development needs of the Irish renewable energy industry. Green Tech Skillnet is promoted by Wind Energy Ireland, the representative body for the Irish wind industry, which is working to promote wind energy as an essential, economic and environmentally friendly part of Ireland's low-carbon energy future. In 2020, Green Tec…

We will get the Deputy a written update on that. We discussed it in the House previously. The Deputy knows that a lot of additional resources apply to that and there has been hiring of staff to address it. It is an issue. We will get the Department to furnish the Deputy with an exact update. With regard to the National Training Fund, the Department is working closely with other Departments to develop options for application to the National Training Fund to support skills priorities and to develop our workforce. Tha…

Local training initiatives, LTIs, are, and will continue to be, an important element of the broad range of education and training supports provided by the further education and training, FET, system to local communities. They operate under the education and training boards, ETBs, and are community-based training programmes targeted at economically, socially, geographically and educationally disadvantaged people. The programmes are designed to assist learners in entering or re-entering the labour market and-or furth…

I agree with the Deputy's sentiments on LTIs. In 2022, a provision of €16.83 million was approved by SOLAS for LTIs, which is broadly in line with the €16.53 million approved for 2021. The 2023 allocation for LTIs will not be decided until the FET budget is finalised with SOLAS, having considered the funding applications that will be submitted by our 16 ETBs. The number of beneficiaries has declined in recent years. In 2018, it was 3,280. The figure dropped year on year to 2021. I assume that Covid played a role in…

A review of the LTIs' operational guidelines is in progress. The working group is a subgroup of the directors of the FET forum, which is served by a complement of staff from the ETBs. This group will facilitate consultation and engagement with the national stakeholders to explore, clarify and resolve specific issues that may arise. All relevant stakeholders will be invited to engage with the group. The review will cover the workings of LTIs. On 21 March, there was a Labour Court recommendation on LTI community trai…

I thank Senator Byrne for raising this issue. I acknowledge that he did so previously as well. He also raised it at a recent meeting of the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party. I also acknowledge the presence of our guests in the Public Gallery from the research community. Under the National Development Plan 2018-2027, as part of Project Ireland 2040, the Government outlined its intention to review Ireland's membership of CERN. The Government gave a specific commitment in Innovation 2020 to initiate discussions with se…

I again thank the Senator for raising this important matter. The whole area of research has stood by our country for a great many years, since we have invested heavily and expanded our whole research horizon. That is undoubted. I fully accept what the Senator says about having a national strategy. I will take that up within the Department. As for the process and the timeframe for associate membership, I will make the Minister, Deputy Harris, acutely aware of the Senator's concerns and those of the research communit…

On behalf of the Minister for Transport, I thank all the Deputies for their contributions to the debate. In both the motion and the contributions from individual Deputies, we can see the range of challenges and opportunities and the progress which has been made to date. I believe that we are all in agreement about wanting a public transport system that serves all members of society, regardless of where they live. As outlined earlier by my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, the Government is dedi…

I will echo some of the comments made by the Minister. I thank the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputies Donohoe and Michael McGrath, for their engagement with us to arrive at a total voted spend for our Department of approximately €3.9 billion. That significant sum of money will be spent on people engaged in the further and higher education sector, research, innovation and science. It will help to drive forward the agenda, give people skills, upskill and educate people for the workforce…

No, he does not.

I thank the Senators who spoke on the amendment. Notwithstanding what has been said, the amendment proposes to amend section 17(7)(b)(iv), which relates to bodies which may be prescribed by the Minister to include bodies which conduct research. This amendment is not necessary, as section 2(2) of the Bill provides that all references to higher education shall include references to research undertaken in the higher education system. Section 2(2)states, "In this Act, references to higher education shall include refere…