Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for highlighting this important issue. By any objective measure, there has been an unprecedented level of focus on apprenticeships by my Department since its creation. In fact, I would argue that one of the big benefits of the establishment of my Department two and a half years ago was a policy focus on the area of apprenticeship, whether through the apprenticeship action plan, a new national apprenticeship office, the highest ever number of new registered apprentices last year - 8,607, employer grants, a huge range of courses, or massive capital investment to try to address some of the issues so we can train more apprentices in the regions. The Deputy and I spoke about that in Castlebar during the week. However, I fully accept that there are real challenges around the Covid backlog, given there was a situation where all learning had to go online. Obviously people cannot do their entire apprenticeship online so the practical elements significantly deteriorated during that time.

There has been a substantial increase in apprenticeship registrations, with 40% extra in 2021 compared to 2019, which was the last normal year before the pandemic. This strong growth is welcome. Indeed, it is essential to meeting our construction and green skills needs. The apprenticeship system has been engaging with meeting this greatly increasing demand while at the same time trying to recover from the impact of the extended closures of the training system during Covid. There has been a major response across the craft apprenticeship system to the delays in accessing off-the-job training and significant progress has been achieved in the number waiting over six months. I thank everyone involved in this. The number stood at almost 5,300 in August and is now reduced to 4,937, notwithstanding the fact that there have been many new registrations at the same time. It is important to understand that the number waiting over six months, which is reducing in absolute terms, also turns over continually due to those accessing training coming off the list throughout the year. I assure the Deputy that absolutely everything that is humanly possible is being done to get this backlog addressed. I will take her through those measures in a moment.

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