I thank Senator Boyhan for his remarks and for raising this issue. I also congratulate Senator Clonan on his recent election to this House. I wish him well. On behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Humphreys, I thank the Senator for raising the matter. The town and village renewal scheme aims to assist with the rejuvenation of rural towns and villages throughout Ireland, making them more attractive places to live, work and visit. It is one of a range of schemes implemented…

I can clarify that the €50,000 is allocated per project and can be spread across any number of local authorities. One project, therefore, can avail of up to €50,000. As an example, in my constituency, Limerick County, a proposal to refurbish the de Valera museum in Bruree received €50,000 to allow it to appoint a design team to take the project forward. Local authorities can apply under that scheme for sums of up to €50,000 per project. I will convey the Senator's comments regarding the website to the Minister and …

We should thank the Senator for raising this matter. The 2016 expert group report, Investing in National Ambition: A Strategy for Funding Higher Education, confirmed that higher education made a significant positive contribution to the development of individuals, employers, society and the State. It concluded that the approach to funding at the time was unsustainable and that substantial increases in investment in higher education needed to be made to ensure that the sector could remain viable and provide capacity …

The Senator will appreciate that I am not in Cabinet and, therefore, I cannot specifically speak to when that will happen but it is fair to say that it is a key priority of the Department I am assigned to. He will be aware of that. It is a key commitment within the programme for Government. It is a priority for the Fianna Fáil Party, the Fine Gael Party and the Green Party. Its journey is taking longer than we all expected and wanted it to take. However, today it has moved on significantly. There is, to borrow a ph…

I thank Senator Malcolm Byrne for raising this important issue. The question relates to the fact that researcher grades such as postdoctoral researchers, for example, have access to public service pensions in some higher education institutions but this access is not universal across the sector. My Department is currently working to support that standardisation of researchers’ pensions access in the higher education sector and has been engaging with the management bodies in the higher education institutes affected o…

I thank the Senator for raising this matter. What he has articulated encapsulates the issue. I shall take as an example, as the Senator has done, the city that is closest to me. In Limerick, two organisations can offer the same job but with hugely disparate terms and conditions. The Department and I fully get that pension entitlements are fundamental to people taking up jobs. I assure the Senator that while I do not have a timeline to give him now, this matter is a priority within the Department and it is being wor…

At the outset, I would like to convey the regrets from the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, who are unavoidably unable to get to this session for reasons beyond their control. They have asked me to cover in their place. I thank Senator O'Loughlin for raising such an important issue on behalf of her constituents. She has advocated their case quite articulately. Enabling children with special educational needs to receive an education is a priority for the Government. Th…

To conclude, I can only reiterate to the Senator what I said in my opening remarks. The position is far from acceptable. The Senator has said that in the case of at least one of her constituents, the application has been ongoing since 2018, which is entirely unacceptable. A person is entitled to have an application considered in a timely fashion. Seeking a third assessment seems quite excessive and dragging out an application for that length of time, when the person in question needs the support of assistive techno…

I thank the Senator for raising this matter, which emanates from a commitment in the programme for Government to designate certain lakes the Senator has named as Corrib, Mask, Arrow, Carra, Conn, Cullin and Sheelin, as salmonoid waters. The initial approach to delivering on this was to put in place a by-law to address the designation. The inland fisheries division of the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications progressed a comprehensive draft by-law within the established legislative processes during …

The Minister is happy that the Inland Fisheries Ireland western lakes management plan will draw on the latest developments in scientific data, survey work and research to create a strategy for these waters that will protect, conserve and preserve their unique status and importance in the long term. The plan will be subject to rigorous environmental governance, including the requirements of EU directives and, critically, will take ecological, biodiversity and socioeconomic impacts into account. If legislative change…

I thank the Deputy for her question. The backlog in apprenticeship training to which reference was made results from the adverse impact of Covid public health restrictions on the operation of the education and training sector. In responding to these restrictions, it has been a priority to seek to facilitate, whenever possible, access to on-site teaching and learning for essential skills-based activities such as apprenticeship. However, the Deputy will appreciate that education and training providers have been close…

I thank the Deputy for her comments. In the initial reply I outlined to the Deputy that significant money had been applied to this issue and I believe she has acknowledged that. In total, across both this year and last year, €37 million will have been made available to address this issue. This includes a change in the structure of phase 2 off-the-job training which will facilitate a third intake of apprentices per annum and an opt-in rapid employer assessment, which has been piloted at phase 7 for the on-the-job el…

With respect to the Deputy, that is total nonsense. To try to present a scenario that we are trying to accrue savings and not invest in apprenticeships or not reform the whole space is simply not the case, and the Deputy knows this. We have 62 apprenticeships up and running, as the Deputy is aware, and we have approximately another 20 in development and approximately another 15 expressions of interest. We launched the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021 to 2025, which has a number of key targets in diversity and eq…

I thank the Deputy for the question. The action plan for apprenticeships 2021-2025 sets out new ways of structuring, funding and promoting apprenticeships to make apprenticeships more accessible to employers and learners in order to achieve a target of 10,000 annual registrations across a wide range of programmes by 2025. Expanding apprenticeship across all sectors of the economy has widened its impact in areas of skills shortage such as engineering, technology skills, logistics and fintech. Under the plan there wi…

On the last point raised by Deputy Stanton, that is an issue which the Minister, Deputy Harris, and I have raised with the new director of the National Apprenticeship Office. It is something which is very much on its work programme. There is a dropout rate similar to that across all sectors, but it is something we are conscious and aware of. On the point raised by Deputy Smyth, the apprenticeship action plan has a number of key targets on new registrations and the number of apprentices in training at any point in t…

We discussed this earlier. Across 2021 and 2022, €37 million has been provided to address the significant backlog which arose due to the Covid pandemic and the restrictions that were imposed throughout various lockdowns that significantly impacted the off-the-job training available to apprentices. SOLAS and our ETBs are providing extra capacity and are hiring extra trainers. They are doing everything they can to reduce the backlog. Earlier, I outlined the specific numbers in terms of how that will be reduced over t…

I wish to offer my condolences and sympathy to the family of the late Noel Treacy, former Deputy and Minister, who served in this House for 30 years. He is a huge loss to his wife and family, his local community and the many organisations with which he was involved in Galway. I refer in particular to Galway GAA, where he was chairman of the county board for a number of years after his retirement from these Houses. He was a great colleague and a great person to offer advice to new Members of this House. I was a new …

I move: That the Bill be referred to the Select Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science pursuant to Standing Orders 95 and 181.

I thank the Senator for his question on an important issue for apprentices and for my Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. The Senator will know that craft apprenticeships account for 25 of the existing available apprenticeship programmes. Given the practical nature of off-the-job training for craft apprentices, the Covid-related shutdown of on-site learning activity over the past two years has had a significant impact on their ability to access such training. The remaining …

I will outline for the House some other pertinent sources of information that may be of assistance to Senators, their offices and their constituents. I encourage all Senators and everyone interested in apprenticeships to keep an eye on two portals - gov.ie/therightcourse and the interactive apprenticeships.ie website. They are one-stop shops for information that people may want to access in order to discover and learn about apprenticeships. We have 62 formalised apprenticeship programmes, a further 15 are in an adv…