Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This year the money collected from the National Training Fund, NTF, is estimated, as the Minister said, to pass €1 billion for the first time. However, he is only proposing to spend about two thirds of that. Some €340 million will go unspent. On top of that, the Minister said there is more than €1 billion sitting in reserve from unspent funds from the past few years. That means that by the end of 2023 there will be €1.5 billion sitting in this reserve, accumulating no interest. This money was collected through the levy with the commitment that it would be invested in education and training and at the same time the Minister has failed to deliver any meaningful progress on addressing the funding gap in the third level education budget. Will the Minister commit to mobilising the NTF reserve to address the funding needs of further and higher education? We have a situation where third level education is crying out for greater levels of funding. At the same time, we have an ever-increasing reserve of money in the NTF. I request that the Minister work with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to invest this money to address the very severe workforce planning challenges that we have.

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