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

Our Department continues to oversee the implementation of the plan put in place by the National Apprenticeship Office in November 2023 to significantly increase apprenticeship capacity, responding to rising craft apprenticeship demand as a result of our buoyant economy. In budget 2024, €67 million was allocated to apprenticeship, on top of which our Department reprioritised a further €30 million on a temporary basis in order to address the apprenticeship backlog. This investment enabled the recruitment of 87 apprentice instructor staff, with three more offers in progress, and supported the significant expansion of apprenticeship provision in training facilities.

In 2024, SOLAS also mandated the ETBs to deliver three intakes of apprenticeship delivery per workshop. As a direct result of these actions, there has been a 34% increase in craft training capacity in ETBs so far in 2024, increasing from 5,600 places in December 2023 to more than 7,500 currently. I am pleased to say that the number of craft apprentices waiting six months or longer for phase 2 off-the-job training has more than halved since the implementation of the National Apprenticeship Office plan, falling from 5,319 in October 2023 to 2,484 in August 2024. Craft apprenticeship takes four years to complete. The Department is initiating a review of the optimum craft apprenticeship training timelines within those four years. In budget 2025 we have just announced €77.4 million funding for apprenticeship, the single largest core investment into the apprenticeship system since the formation of the Department, demonstrating our priority to deliver enough training places for industry skills needs today and tomorrow and support this Government's targets in housing and retrofitting.

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