I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh for her question. Increasing the number of people availing of apprenticeships is a key priority for me and my Department. The Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025 sets out the vision for apprenticeships. This includes new ways of structuring, funding and promoting apprenticeships to make them more accessible to employers and, crucially, to learners. To date the programmes on offer through this model have expanded to address areas of skills shortages such as engineering, technology, l…

First, we have never had more apprentice registrations than we saw in 2021. Registrations that year were the highest ever. That said, I appreciate the point the Deputy made. We obviously had the global pandemic but we are seeing a very significant acceleration of apprenticeships. The Deputy does not have to take my word for that. She can ask business groups around the country, the education and training boards, ETBs, with which she engages, the technological universities and the National Apprenticeship Office and t…

I am not reopening another debate on housing but I would just point out that the Housing for All targets were met in the last calendar year. There are precisely 320 public sector apprenticeships as of now, with 100 more planned for this year. If we include the semi-State sector as well, the total is 938 apprenticeships. There are 938 apprentices in the public and semi-State sectors combined. There are 320 in the public sector alone, with another 100 to be added. I had a very interesting meeting with the Irish Congr…

Yes, absolutely.

I am actively working to address the supply of student accommodation. Indeed, that is probably an understatement. A unit has been established within my Department and there is really good engagement going on with both the traditional and the technological universities. We all know the challenges involved. The increasing costs of construction and financing are impacting on viability and as a result, a number of universities made decisions to pause accommodation projects. In response to these challenges, on 29 Novemb…

The RTB is not under my remit but I will seek that information. It is important to have that information. If I secure that information, I will share it with Deputy Conway-Walsh. From memory I know that my colleague, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, issued a circular in regard to ensuring that student accommodation was utilised for that purpose. There is possibly an issue that some private developments could now be used as part of the humanitarian response in regard to Ukraine but I will chec…

What I have responsibility for is the higher education sector, the actual direct college-owned student accommodation. There is more of that this year than there was last year, which had more than the year before that. There is more now than there was before I entered office. On the purpose-built student accommodation piece, the Deputy’s point about the private market is not an unreasonable or unimportant point, but I made the policy change because I do not believe student accommodation policy can be reliant on priv…

I thank Deputy Pringle for raising these issues on a regular basis in terms of how we can try to get that education cluster in the north west going. Deputy Pringle may be aware that I spoke at the launch of the North West Tertiary Education Cluster last October. That was an opportunity to meet with and thank the leadership of Atlantic Technological University of Donegal, Donegal ETB, the University of Ulster and the North West Regional College, which are the main partners. This cluster builds on what is already a s…

I fully agree with the Deputy. As we approach the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, one of the key areas where we can do a great deal more to embed peace and to try to create economic prosperity, well-being, good jobs and skills is in the cross-Border area. It makes sense, for example, to undertake medical education. Without deviating too much from the question, it makes sense that doctors working in Letterkenny should be able to access the medical school in North West Regional College. I have stood in…

Not to get ahead of myself, but I know from conversations I have had with the UU, ATU, the shared island unit and others that there is a strong and exciting pipeline of projects coming from both ATU Letterkenny and UU Derry with respect to things they can do together. These are in the research space and the medical education space, especially. The senior management teams of both ATU Donegal and UU Derry are meeting to develop a proposal to try to meet the Government's commitment to contribute to the capital investm…

This is a tricky question for me because usually when I am asked if I have engaged with another Department I can say I will, but I am currently the Minister for Justice as well so it is a question asking whether I have engaged with myself, which I do regularly.

I thank Deputies Gino Kenny and Boyd Barrett for the question. It is an important issue. The quality of our researchers is fundamental to the quality of our research system and its collaboration with partners in industry and policymakers in both Ireland and abroad. Under pillar 4 of our national research and innovation strategy, Impact 2030, we have committed to ensuring that researchers have the right skills development and career opportunities to allow them make their maximum contribution, whether in academia, in…

I have not been made aware of the issue Deputy Conway-Walsh raised, but I will certainly become aware of it and revert to the Deputy on it. To be clear, the overall policy direction I want to go in is financially to support better our PhD research. The Deputy and I share that view. On what Deputy Kenny said, there are about 11,000 PhD and research master's students in Ireland and about 2,700 of them are non-EU students. The issue in discussing this, which shows the need for the review, is there is such a range of s…

A large body of work has been done by the co-chairs, for which I thank them. They have had meetings with more than 30 stakeholder organisations, including an all-day in-person workshop on 8 March. They have had a public consultation, through which they received approximately 750 written submissions, which indicates the energy behind the approach to change. I expect to receive the report in the coming weeks - I hope to receive it in April - and will consider and publish it, but I will bring it to the Government firs…

I welcome the students the Deputy has brought from his constituency. Under the student grant scheme, SUSI grants are awarded to eligible students attending an approved course in an approved institution who meet the conditions of funding, including nationality and residency. The scheme has a strong statutory underpinning and is operated in accordance with the provisions of the law, namely, the Student Support Act 2011. To be eligible for a grant, a student must show that he or she has been resident in the State for …

Our country is all the better for the diversity in communities across Ireland. The story of the Deputy's constituents shows people who want a bright future and the best opportunities for their children in terms of education and employment prospects while also making a contribution to Ireland, our economy and the skill shortages that exist in many workplaces. Applying for and being granted Irish citizenship – I had the honour of presiding at a citizenship ceremony a number of weeks ago – satisfies the eligibility cr…

I have nothing further to add other than to thank Deputy Flaherty and say that I will revert to him on the matter.

We do our best.

I thank Deputies Flaherty and Niamh Smyth for tabling this question. The National Skills Council is the high-level advisory group on skills in Ireland and provides an opportunity for strategic dialogue and advice to inform Government decision-making to ensure our skills ecosystem continues to be flexible, agile and responsive to the needs of the future world of work. A key work plan priority for the council has been to support the OECD review of our national skills strategy, which I initiated last year and is neari…

I agree with Deputy Ó Murchú. There is no ETB in Ireland that has done as well as LMETB in terms of putting forward exciting projects. We see them both in Dundalk and Drogheda. Later today I will publish a progress report on the Drogheda implementation group. My sector of further and higher education, as distinct from my role in the Department of Justice, played an important role in hopefully helping embed some of those recommendations. I thank the Deputy for his co-operation and work with us on those things. The N…