Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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50. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the cause of the 17% increase in apprentices waiting to access off-the-job training in the past two months, which has brought the total back up to half of all craft apprentices currently on waiting lists; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6458/22]

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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Too many apprentices have been failed throughout the pandemic. They were unable to access the offsite training they needed to complete or advance their apprenticeships and become the qualified tradespeople we sorely need. It is truly alarming that there has been a 17% increase in apprentices waiting to access off-the-job training in the past two months, with figures back up to just under 10,000. That represents half of all craft apprentices. What has caused this and what steps are being taken to address it?

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for her question. The backlog in apprenticeship training to which reference was made results from the adverse impact of Covid public health restrictions on the operation of the education and training sector. In responding to these restrictions, it has been a priority to seek to facilitate, whenever possible, access to on-site teaching and learning for essential skills-based activities such as apprenticeship. However, the Deputy will appreciate that education and training providers have been closed for extended periods since March 2020 on public health grounds and that during periods when apprenticeship classes were permitted, they were running at half capacity under social distancing measures.

A detailed and comprehensive emergency plan to tackle apprenticeship waiting lists has been under way across further education and training since August 2021, when some training facilities started to reopen. At that point, 11,859 apprentices were delayed in their training. Since then, a €20 million additional capital investment has provided a large increase in workshops and equipment in every training location in the country. A further €17 million was provided under budget 2022 to further facilitate the response of SOLAS and the HEA, including a significant recruitment campaign to increase the number of trainers.

By the end of January, almost 7,000, or 60%, of those on the July 2021 waiting list were back in training or had completed their phase of training and were progressing in their apprenticeship. The number waiting at the end of January 2022 was 9,570, reflecting the rapid growth in registrations during 2021 and to date in 2022.

Craft apprenticeships are demand-led, with no restrictions on registrations in any single year. The current apprentice population is more than 24,000, the highest it has been since 2009. Apprenticeship registrations in 2021 were the highest they have been since 2007, with 8,607 apprentices employed on 62 programmes. Some 6,955 registrations were in craft apprenticeship programmes, with more than 60% of these in the electrical, plumbing, carpentry and joinery crafts.

My Department, SOLAS and other apprenticeship partners are actively working on additional measures to ensure the waiting list is removed as speedily as possible, enabling apprentices to progress through their apprenticeship as quickly as is feasible. By the end of the year, the vast majority of apprentices waiting for phase 2 placement will have started this training.

By the start of April, the backlog for phases 4 and 6 will be cleared.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State. On the phases, in September, we had 1,000 in phase 6 and 2,000 in phase 4, but the vast majority - 7,000 - were in phase 2 at that time. In one sense, when the Minister of State gives the figures and says that phases 4 and 6 will be cleared by April, I obviously welcome that, but the vast majority are in phase 2. We need to be careful of that.

It is positive that apprenticeship registrations are up, and this is to be welcomed. The Minister of State should, however, be careful of what he takes credit for unless he wants to accept the blame for the collapse of registration numbers in the past. Craft apprenticeship registrations reflect demand in the construction sector, but the Minister of State cannot explain why 10,000 people were unable to access the off-the-job education component because the target was surpassed by 300. This happened months after people had been taken back to work at full capacity. How can we have insufficient capacity when the Minister of State has spent the past year and a half telling us he was ramping up capacity to deal with the backlog? Things just do not just add up. The true figure is even higher, because his Department removes apprentices from the waiting lists when they get the start date for the training and not when they actually start.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for her comments. In the initial reply I outlined to the Deputy that significant money had been applied to this issue and I believe she has acknowledged that. In total, across both this year and last year, €37 million will have been made available to address this issue. This includes a change in the structure of phase 2 off-the-job training which will facilitate a third intake of apprentices per annum and an opt-in rapid employer assessment, which has been piloted at phase 7 for the on-the-job element, for those apprentices who have completed phase 6 and who have spent more than four years in their apprenticeship scheme.

The Deputy is aware of the apprenticeship incentivisation scheme and the impact that has had, and I have spoken about the increase in registrations. We brought in that scheme during Covid-19 when it was extended and played a vital role in ramping up the numbers who came in at a period when there were other demands in our sector.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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There are 500-odd fewer apprentices who became qualified tradespeople in 2021 than in 2020, despite the reopening in September. I want to know when the waiting lists will be cleared and the apprentices will be able to complete the training in the allocated four years, like every other student? The people with the skills we need to meet housing and retrofit targets need to be valued and the system that trains them needs to be functioning properly. Instead, the Minister of State's Department, over 2020 and 2021, saved more money due to the waiting lists than was spent in addressing the backlog. The State saved more than €55 million, mostly from apprentice allowances, and only reinvested €37 million. The Minister of State has left almost €1 billion sitting unused in the National Training Fund.

To make matters worse, in a written response to me, the Minister of State actually used the backlog as a justification for his plans to reform the apprenticeship model. These reforms were previously described by the Connect Trade Union as essentially privatisation of the service. Is the Minister of State allowing the system to collapse so that he can justify dismantling the craft apprenticeship model?

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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With respect to the Deputy, that is total nonsense. To try to present a scenario that we are trying to accrue savings and not invest in apprenticeships or not reform the whole space is simply not the case, and the Deputy knows this. We have 62 apprenticeships up and running, as the Deputy is aware, and we have approximately another 20 in development and approximately another 15 expressions of interest. We launched the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021 to 2025, which has a number of key targets in diversity and equality. We have set up and resourced the National Apprenticeship Office and the stakeholder alliance which will support that. There is a great deal happening in this space as the Deputy knows well. We are moving into completely new and unprecedented areas. The Deputy’s presentation is that the house is falling down, on which I simply cannot agree with her. The Deputy’s contribution was more a statement than a question and this is my reply to it.