Róisín Garvey (Green Party)
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I thank the witnesses for their time. I had to leave the meeting to attend another committee and I hope my questions have not already been asked.

Which Department funds SFI? Is SFI a State agency or a semi-State agency?

As regards STEM, when I visited the SFI website I saw very little on climate. I would love to hear about SFI focusing on STEM and getting people to look at the green economy, green jobs and all the things we will need to be a resilient country as we face an unpredictable future. We saw what happens when we lose access to wheat and gas, for example. The country is moving towards a green economy. What is being done specifically on that issue? Does SFI have a unit focusing on the skills that will be needed to face the climate and ecology emergency?

For IBEC, a matter I raise it at every committee meeting and everywhere else I can is that nothing has improved with regard to giving guidance counsellors access to new information on apprenticeships. When they visit apprenticeship.ie, it literally tells them to ask their guidance counsellor. There does not seem to be a good one-stop shop. There is no access to information on private businesses that are looking for apprenticeships. I met the vice-president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors. It keeps hearing about all these new apprenticeships and improvements but it has no way of finding out about them. There is a need to increase apprenticeships but it is difficult to do so if guidance counsellors do not have the information. There is something missing in that regard.

I would love to hear more about the surplus in the national training fund. Is it something on which ETBs can draw down? For example, there are six centres of excellence - new training centres on climate and energy stuff - but they are not necessarily in counties where lots of people can access them. I would like there to be further outreach in that regard. Is that something for which that fund could be used? When an ETB tells me it does not have the funding it needs, I could suggest accessing the national training fund. There has been an effort to cut down on the number of people driving to college. The more outreach training courses that are provided, the less distance people have to drive. I know some courses are online but the best form of learning is in-person learning. I would like to know more about that fund.