Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is a good question. While the answer is "Yes", those structures could be better. I recently met with the chairs of all our regional skills forums, almost all of whom are involved in businesses, to ask them to suggest what we can do at a regional level to reach out to businesses and make sure they have information around apprenticeships and the supports put in place by the Government to help employers, particularly small employers, to take on apprentices. As the Deputy knows, since January 2022, we have had an apprenticeship employer grant. We introduced this grant of €2,000 per apprentice per annum in recognition of the fact that even though there are benefits for a small business that wants to take on an apprentice, there can also be a cost in terms of time. Employers of apprentices who are not eligible for State payment of off-the-job training allowances are reimbursed at regular intervals in mid-year and at the end of the year. In 2023, more than 2,000 employers availed of the apprenticeship employer grant, with €5.351 million paid out in that year. We also now have a gender grant, which applies when an employer takes on somebody from a gender that is under-represented in a particular apprenticeship. We are trying to expand the pool of employers by going to the public sector. We have to remember that the public sector is one of the biggest employers of apprentices. It is based in every county, town and village. We are setting targets for the first time for public service apprenticeships.

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