Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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On the C and AG's chapter, surpluses have been accumulating each year on the fund. A graph shows huge gaps between the forecast surplus and the actual surplus, and the actual income and actual expenditure, last year. It can be seen that not just the amount but the percentage gap is increasing massively. In that context and that of the conversation we just had regarding training for people in employment, I am mindful of the fact that there is talk of us being in full employment. We are not in full employment. Approximately 5% of the population are still unemployed.

On National Training Fund spending by grantees, we have had a discussion on the need for greater monitoring of outcomes. It is not just about the numbers going in and going through but what we are actually getting out of that. A couple of figures jumped out of that. The table at annexe 19A, National Training Fund spending by grantee 2015 to 2022, indicates a number of significant reductions. Enterprise-focused higher education provision is at €152 million, which is okay and welcome, but Springboard is down from €22 million to €10 million. Training people for employment has gone from €216 million down to €130 million, a lot of which I believe relates to SOLAS. On community employment, training support grants have reduced from €3.2 million to €2.3 million, while community employment training, which was at €4.2 million in 2015, the year I am referencing for all this, is now down to €3.6 million. In that context, many of the streams of funding for those areas relate directly to people who are not in employment, or not in full-time employment, yet these figures show the amount of activity in that sector, despite the fact it is obviously getting more costly because staff and centres to provide the training have become more expensive. However, the funds seem to be reducing rapidly as regards what we are putting into them. Will Mr. Beausang address that? I am particularly concerned about that use of public funds.