Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Cathasaigh, I was trying to write his questions down. I thank the Deputy for the comments on equality budgeting. We are very happy to provide the committee with any further information it might require. It is an area that is definitely worthy of some additional scrutiny also.

On the TU agenda, which the Deputy is very passionate about and especially with regard to the south east, there is funding allocated through the transformations fund. This is given out over a number of years. The Deputy will be familiar with that. The Government has, to date, invested heavily in the TU agenda with more than €65 million invested so far through landscape and transformation funding. The transformation fund will expend €90 million up to 2023, with €34.3 million having been allocated in the first tranche last October. In total, more than €120 million will have been invested in TU development and progression.

I assure the committee there is no lack of commitment to ensuring that all areas can benefit from the region-centric and multi-campus TU. Though already long established in the higher education landscape in other countries, the concept is a new one here. I very much accept that. We continue to engage with colleagues in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on the borrowing framework but we also need to be conscious of the whole issue of EUROSTAT on that. I will keep the committee up to date.

I, too, am always wary of administration cost increases, but I will advise the Deputy on subheads A1 and A2. There is a net increase of €772,000 overall.

It is driven by additional funding for the establishment of a new Department, but it is also an internal reallocation between pay and non-pay. I assure the Deputy that they are the two reasons behind that. I will ask the Minister of State to comment on the apprenticeship issue.

On subhead B17 and the costs of public-private partnerships, PPPs, there is an additional €41 million in the capital ceiling adjustment out of an overall €92.5 million in the national development plan, NDP, increase. The purpose of this is to enable us to pay unitary charges to PPP operators. I will send the Deputy a note with further details. I ask the Minister of State to respond on apprenticeships.