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

I wish to point out to the Deputy that our National Skills Council and the nine regional skills fora created under our national skills strategy foster engagement and collaboration between relevant Departments and agencies, the education and training system and enterprise. To secure more effective governance of Ireland's skills ecosystem, the National Skills Council has been reformed in line with the recommendations of the 2023 OECD review of Ireland's national skills strategy. The Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, brought a memo to Government on 9 July advising of the reconstituted membership of that body. It has an independent chair from industry and enterprise, which was identified through an expression of interest process; eight enterprise and industry representatives, also all selected through an expression of interest process; representatives of the social partners nominated by ICTU, Ibec, ISME, and the community and voluntary social partnership pillar; and two skills experts. The newly constituted skills council met for the first time recently on 19 September. Their focus is to continually review our skills needs and to address the requirements or deficits that we have in our system.

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