Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There will be and I am pleased, as the first Minister in this new Department, to have a significant increase in funding already. Outside of the higher education places, we will be training an additional 50,000 people in 2021 compared to this year. That is part of our response, and we have more ambition in that regard. We engage regularly with IBEC. Its representatives sit on a number of the bodies I mentioned. I have had a number of meetings with IBEC since taking office. I will give an example of how the link with industry produces a good idea. One of the ideas the Government came up with was providing a financial incentive for a business to take on a new apprentice, and I am very pleased that as a result of that cash incentive, which is €3,000 for a business that takes on an apprentice, the number of registered new apprentices has significantly increased. Some 77 apprentices were registered in April while 918 were registered in October and 840 were registered in November. There were more new apprentices registered in October and November this year than in October and November 2019. Working together is extremely important in that regard.

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