Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is not possible at this stage to accurately estimate the costs associated with the development of new apprenticeships. I have established the Apprenticeship Council which will make a call for proposals, hopefully before the end of this year, from enterprise sectors partnering with education and training providers for the development of new apprenticeships. The amount of financial support required will depend on a number of factors, including the amount of sustainable proposals that come in. We hope that through engagement there will be a lot of interest in this. There is a lot of talk about it and it is up to industry to get involved through the various structures and come back with proposals which will be analysed. That will give us an idea of how many proposals can be moved on to be developed as an apprenticeship model and a fair idea of the costs. As the year progresses, we will get a better idea of this but at the moment it is very hard to project.

We are hoping through engagement that there will be a great deal of interest in this. Certainly, there is a great deal of talk in industry about the need for this development. It is up to industry to get involved here through all the various structures. After it has made its proposals, they will be analysed and dealt with. At that point, we will have an idea of the number of proposals that can be advanced to being developed as apprenticeship models. We will have a fair idea of the costs at that stage. We will get a better feel for this as the year progresses. At the moment, it is very hard to predict how it will develop.

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