The questions are being taken out of order, my apologies.

I thought it was the Deputy's question about the university visits. Regarding the SUSI grant systems and changes in the thresholds, I will sign regulations this week which will increase the income threshold by €1,000 for the grants from September. It will increase the amount of the grant by €200 and reduce the criteria to qualify for the higher, non-adjacent rate. It will reduce the distance a student needs to live from the university from 45 km to 30 km. These are three of the initial measures we intend to take to…

I thank the Deputy. I will ask my colleague the Minister for Transport to revert to the Deputy on the issue regarding public transport. The changes I have spoken about will come in for students from this September. The grants will increase by €200 and the income threshold by €1,000. The qualifying criteria for the higher and non-adjacent rate will reduce from having to live 45 km away to 30 km away. Those changes will come in from September. Deputy Conway-Walsh and I engaged earlier on when any more changes that co…

Yes.

It is a broad stretch. Every Minister has two special advisers, who earn less than the Deputy every year. The Deputy benefits from a salary that is higher than theirs and we can work out how many student contributions that would pay for as well.

I have two special advisers. Every Minister has two Government advisers. That is a matter of fact and it is well known what special advisers do in Departments. On public transport, I will ask the Minister for Transport to revert directly to the Deputy. Fuel costs are a real issue for all our constituents, regardless of our political affiliations. I hope the Government can do something to assist the public generally and students specifically. We will reflect on the cost-of-living impacts on students and all people i…

The Deputy does indeed ask this question and it is an important one. As the Deputy is aware, the backlog in craft apprenticeship training was genuinely a result of the adverse impact of Covid public health restrictions. The Deputy and I agree that the sector has worked very hard to try to alleviate this situation. In responding to these restrictions it has been a priority to seek to facilitate, where possible, access to onsite teaching and learning for essential skills-based activities such as apprenticeships. A de…

I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh for raising the issue of Ballyhaunis. I will ask my officials to engage with SOLAS regarding it. A competitive call is under way now and, from memory, applications are due in by the first week of April. It will be up to the local ETBs to prioritise the projects they wish to see funded in the first competitive capital call. I will ensure that my officials and SOLAS are aware of Ballyhaunis. The Deputy has pointed out the reduced number of apprentices who fully qualified in a year. We must…

The Deputy makes a fair point regarding the voice of the apprentice. For example, if I wish to talk to third level students, I can talk to the USI and if I wish to talk to university presidents, then I talk to the Irish University Association, the Technological Higher Education Association, THEA, etc. Who does one talk to, however, when one wishes to talk to the apprentice on the front line, other than going around apprenticeship centres, which the Deputy and I do? The new national apprenticeship alliance, which we…

I thank Deputy Stanton for raising this issue. It is not the first time he has raised this issue with me and I am aware that he has an interest in the area. The LTI is a project-based training and work experience programme operating under the 16 ETBs in partnership with community and voluntary organisations. In 2021, the ETBs provided 212 LTI courses nationwide, involving more than 2,000 learners. Those are the latest figures I have. Training provision organised through LTIs is not intended to be permanent and it i…

There were a couple of questions from the Deputy. He can speak about what the document is not referencing but I want to state in this House that it should not be taken in any way, shape or form as my view, the Department's view or the Government's view on the importance of the LTI programmes across the country and the role they have to play. I suggest to the Deputy that the most appropriate avenue to embed that importance will be in the individual strategic agreements being reached between SOLAS and each of the ETB…

I am aware of it. I have not met them and I am not sure if they are looking to meet me. I would be delighted to meet them and am more than happy to set that up with the Deputy. As the Deputy rightly says, I will ensure that policy comes from both the bottom up and top down, for want of a better phrase. I will ensure that is reflected in my engagement with SOLAS, the ETBs and my Department. I do not have the data that the Deputy is seeking. I will state clearly that I am concerned if a number of people, particularly…

I thank Deputy Ó Murchú for the question. The Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025 aims to ensure the apprenticeship system will contribute to meeting Ireland's skills and human capital requirements by delivering on a target of 10,000 apprenticeship registrations per annum by 2025. Among the 62 apprenticeships currently available at levels 5 to 10 of the national framework of qualifications, 25 are craft-related. More specifically, they include housing and retrofitting-related programmes such as electrical, plu…

There are two specific answers. The expert group on future skills needs falls under the remit of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and SOLAS is an agency of my Department that looks at labour bulletins and where skills shortages exist and which has a responsibility for meeting those skills shortages. I will take those two specific issues because we have figures for them. To deliver the retrofitting programme, we believe we need 17,000 additional people working in retrofitting by the middle of the d…

I might need an hour and a half to reply to all of that.

The DkIT cross-party Oireachtas Members meeting must happen and I put it on the record of the House that it will get under way quickly. The transcript will act as an aide-memoire on that. On the question of students coming from Ukraine and my Department's responsibility in that regard, the Deputy raises an important point. My Department's responsibilities will largely arise in four areas. These include English-language supports and ensuring we have provision for anyone who comes to this country to access English-la…

I thank Deputy Gould for the question. I should first say that my Department allocates specific funding for research through Science Foundation Ireland, SFI, the Irish Research Council, IRC, and the Higher Education Authority, HEA. In 2021, SFI and the IRC spent €257 million on targeted research funding. Higher education institutions also fund research from their block grants from the HEA, in addition to other calls such as the North-South Research Programme. Citizen science benefits from this funding. For example,…

I thank the Deputy and acknowledge his passion in this area. Just to be really clear, I see huge benefit in citizen science. The Deputy will also appreciate and would think it appropriate that when it comes to deciding scientific and research projects to be funded, it is important that there are criteria that are independent of me. That is the way we have funded science and research in this country, through our funding agencies, SFI in this instance. In an effort to be helpful to the Deputy and the project he refer…

It sounds like a very interesting concept that the Deputy has. The SFI Discover programme is genuinely the route where I would suggest citizen science opportunities may exist for community groups. In the Deputy's own county of Cork for example there is a project being funded by SFI Discover called Rebel Yeast. It is an immersive citizen science project where volunteer scientists are exploring local woodlands to discover new wild yeasts, analyse their samples in the laboratory and participate in planning the researc…

Under the national development plan published last October, the Government has committed to a significant and much needed step-up in investment in further education and training infrastructure, including the realisation of what we call FET Colleges of the Future and expansion of apprenticeship delivery. In the context of this commitment, I was very pleased to announce in February the parameters of this ambitious new phase of capital investment in the further education and training sector. This investment will inclu…