Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I remember when Deputy Leddin and I opened that centre together. It has been a key part of the infrastructure. We now have a number of centres of excellence throughout the country. In fact, the question we used to get asked was whether we would have enough capacity in the education system to help people get retrofitting skills. The question now is different. It is now about whether we will be able to create enough demand. We now have more capacity than demand. I will get the individual breakdown for the Deputy, but I can say that the number of people accessing retrofitting training is going up year on year and month on month. Limerick is playing an important role in that. We need, however, to give consideration to policy initiatives to stimulate more demand, in particular making it easier for small and medium businesses to free up their staff to avail of the training.

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