Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In response to Deputy Stanton, he raised the local training initiatives previously and the points that he raised are quite valid. That is something that we flagged to the National Apprenticeship Office and its new director in terms of the work she is doing. I am confident that the issues the Deputy is flagging is an area she is looking at.

On the manpower planning and regional skills, we have, as the Deputy will know, a network of regional skills managers. We have nine regional skills managers around the country who are linked in to employers and industry in their functional areas. It as a very important aspect in terms of informing us, SOLAS, the education and training boards, ETBs, and the Department on policy direction. Similarly, I think the Deputy mentioned this in his question on upskilling, in terms of the existing people who are involved and are qualified and working in, for example, the construction areas, our network of nearly zero energy buildings, NZEB, centres is out there. They are being rolled out. They are short courses to upskill people who are already qualified and in the workplace.

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