Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

First, I will say that all of our thoughts are with the families of those who died in the Stardust tragedy in 1981. For over 40 years now, the families have pursued their search for truth and justice. In a couple of hours' time, we will hear the verdict of the Dublin Coroner's Court. This will be an important moment for the families and for the entire country because the Stardust tragedy is seared into the collective consciousness of the Irish people. The tenacity of the families and their success in securing this inquest has been a service to all in society. I join with everyone else in sharing our thoughts with them today of all days.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I will first make the overall point that more than 160,000 people now work in construction in Ireland. Tá dul chun cinn ollmhór le feiscint sa mhéadú ar an líon daoine atá ag obair ag tógáil tithíochta agus a lán rudaí eile. Tá an méadú níos láidre in Éirinn ná in aon tír eile san Eoraip. In percentage terms, our construction output is increasing. It is the highest output across the 27 European member states. You do not get those figures if you do not have apprentices coming through and if you do not have an increase in the workforce. That is the fundamental issue.

Nobody has taken their eye of the ball in respect of apprenticeships. Eliminating waits of six months or longer for apprentice training, predominantly phase 2 off-the-job training, has been an area of unrelenting focus for this Government. Indeed, we set up a separate Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to give greater focus at Cabinet to the whole area of skills and apprenticeships. Very significant progress has been made. The Covid-19 pandemic created very significant backlogs in respect of apprenticeships but those are reducing. The number of apprenticeship registrations to the end of 2023 was 8,712, an increase of 5% on the end of 2022 and of 41% on the 2019 figure. There has been a very significant change in respect of people signing up for apprenticeships. The number of craft apprenticeship registrations increased from 5,271 in 2019 to 6,588 in 2023, an increase of 25%.

In October of last year, all of the stakeholders formed a task force. This comprised departmental officials, SOLAS, the NAO, the HEA, ETBI, the ETBs, employers, apprentices, staff and their union representatives. It developed a cross-sectoral plan to address the backlog. I was surprised the Deputy did not reference the cross-sectoral plan developed by that task force. The National Apprenticeship Office is leading the response, overseen by the Department. The rapid implementation of the response plan means that the backlog had reduced to 3,460 the end of March this year. This is made up of 3,347 waiting on phase 2, 95 waiting on phase 4, and 18 waiting on phase 6. Some €67 million was secured in budget 2024 for the delivery of apprenticeships. Approximately €300 million has been provided for apprenticeships in total. Of this, €40 million was temporary to assist with capacity in training. That will continue.

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