James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Cahill for raising this important matter. I acknowledge the Deputy's continued advocacy for his constituency of Kerry and his interest in this topic. He has raised this issue with me via parliamentary questions as well as elsewhere. I am aware of the issue the Deputy has raised. It is an important and frustrating issue. It has been raised with me in a number of different situations. In my response I want to set out the reasons why this can arise, how it arises and how it may be best managed.

As the Deputy acknowledged in his remarks, the Government is fully committed to making apprenticeships a strong, productive and positive journey for learners and employers. That is set out in the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-25. As the Deputy has acknowledged, the resources that have matched that include millions of euro, in particular in the last budget, to cement that track. Apprenticeships play a vital role in our education and skills ecosystem, combining on-the-job training with off-the-job learning. It is sometimes put as earn as you learn and delivers real career opportunities in every part of the country in a vital range of skills.

There are 77 apprenticeship programmes, ranging from traditional craft apprenticeships to non-traditional things like cybersecurity, accounting technicians, digital marketing and many other areas that may not have been part of the apprenticeship spectrum in the past. The Government is continuing to expand training capacity for apprenticeships, with budget 2024 providing €144 million for apprenticeship training. There are national programmes delivered through ETBs at local level and technological universities, with SOLAS being the co-ordinating body.

It is important, as I said the outset, that the goal of every apprenticeship programme is to match capacity with demand and to match the needs of apprentices and their employer. The objective is to get the apprentice into training as quickly, efficiently and productively as possible, and ideally always at the nearest available training centre. If it is not available at the nearest centre, the next closest is offered. There can be challenges when a placement is offered that is not local. Every registered apprentice is assigned a dedicated training adviser in the ETB as the go-to point when issues arise. That person is a key contact point for guidance, problem solving and practical support throughout the training journey.

Apprentices and their employers - it is a two-way pact - can decline up to three offers if the timing or location does not suit their needs and can be rescheduled. There are three goes at this. Three offers can be made, and there can be three refusals and three attempts to reschedule and rebalance. It is not a perfect system but it aims to balance fairness, urgency and regional capacity constraints.

Just like university or college courses, not every apprenticeship course is available in every region. There are reasons for that. For example, stone cutting and stone masonry is a very specialist niche area, and a very difficult and highly skilled one, but there are only 30 places available nationwide. They are delivered in Kerry, the Deputy's county. The training of farriers is again a specialist niche area delivered in my constituency of Kildare because it is the home of the horse. It has a particular and narrow number of places, and there is a reason for that. Such places will not be available nationwide.

However, many other courses are available nationwide. The difficulty is finding a course on a schedule that suits a particular apprentice that is becoming available at that time. If the apprentice is not able to take up that course, the next best offer may not be guaranteed to be in the closest location and may in fact be further away. There is a degree of lottery that kicks in at that stage.

The Department is very aware of the burden that travel and accommodation can impose on an apprentice who is asked to travel away from home. There are targets and supports in place, such as the rent-a-room relief. People can avail of €14,000 tax free while providing dig type accommodation. Other measures are provided. There is an accommodation allowance for craft apprentices who have to travel outside of their home region to avail of accommodation elsewhere.

I acknowledge there is a difficulty. There is no easy answer for the Deputy. There are three refusals allowed, but it is not a guarantee that the next will be in a preferable location. I will respond further on that.

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