Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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88. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will report on the initiatives that he plans to encourage the recruitment of apprentices in the renewable energy sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51441/22]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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This question is being taken by Deputy Leddin.

Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
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Will the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science report on the initiatives he plans to encourage the recruitment of apprentices in the renewable energy sector, and will he make a statement on the matter?

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Leddin for his question. The Climate Action Plan 2021 is a detailed plan for taking decisive action to set us on a path to reach net zero emissions by no later than 2050. The plan contains key measures driving the creation of the new green jobs with new skills required to achieve climate action goals, including for renewable energy generation.

The November 2021 Expert Group on Future Skills Needs report, Skills for Zero Carbon, identified the main occupational roles essential to meet Ireland’s renewable energy targets, including construction and installation occupations, maintenance technicians and engineering professionals. The April 2021 Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025 details the actions and ambitious targets that will ensure the national apprenticeship system plays a key role in meeting skill needs for renewable energy. In that context, alongside the established craft apprenticeships, there is now a wind turbine maintenance technician apprenticeship in place.

A key deliverable in the action plan is driving employer participation in apprenticeship provision through both financial and non-financial measures. A new employer grant of €2,000 per apprentice per annum has already been available from January 2022. Its introduction has meant that, for the first time, employers of all apprentices have access to financial support, either through direct payment of allowances to apprentices or through the employer grant.

A central role of the National Apprenticeship Office, also established under the plan, is to engage with employers and education and training providers to support the design and development of further apprenticeships to meet priority skills needs. The National Apprenticeship Office is now fully open for business and can facilitate the development of apprenticeships to underpin the accelerated growth required in Ireland's offshore wind energy sector to meet crucial and ambitious Government targets for off-shore wind energy generation.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

Its work in this area and the assessment of how best to secure strong employer participation in apprenticeship in renewable energy will be strongly informed and guided by the ongoing assessment of the actions required for the accelerated development of this sector, including by the cross-departmental offshore wind development task force. Apprenticeship is one of many ways through which the skills needs of the sector are being met by the tertiary education system including by, for example, the Green Tech Skillnet and its wind turbine technician programme.

Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
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I thank the Minister of State for his detailed answer. It gives me a great deal of confidence to hear an answer like that because the challenge we have as a society is one of total reform as we take on this very significant and monumental challenge which is climate change. If we could fast-forward a few years, we could probably see that our energy, transport, housing and agriculture sectors will all look very different, but it is very much a question of the time and effort we put in now to training our young people. To a certain degree, we will have to go overseas for some of these skills but there should be very significant opportunities for our young people, in particular, and for our not-so-young people to transition into new roles. We will need engineers, technologists, ecologists, planners and many other skill sets to succeed in this very significant challenge. It is not just about wind or offshore wind but also involves the other sectors, and we should be mindful of the reform agenda we have in those sectors.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I also want to mention to the Deputy in the context of this question the area of Skillnet Ireland. We have a Green Tech Skillnet, which is an enterprise-led network facilitating the workforce and development needs of the Irish renewable energy industry. Green Tech Skillnet is promoted by Wind Energy Ireland, the representative body for the Irish wind industry, which is working to promote wind energy as an essential, economic and environmentally friendly part of Ireland's low-carbon energy future. In 2020, Green Tech Skillnet supported more than 180 companies and provided upskilling for in excess of 600 employed trainees throughout the 1,700 training days in the course, which included introduction to wind, advanced composite wind turbine blade repair, the clean energy package review and risk assessment, and the wind turbine technician skills. The Green Tech Skillnet also delivers programmes through the Skills Connect initiative to support jobseekers seeking to enter the renewable sector, which includes the wind turbine programme.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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We have a number of supplementary contributors now; four in number.

Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
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I thank the Minister of State for his answer. I am very familiar with Skillnet Ireland. I met some of its people in the University of Limerick recently and they told me about the micro-credential programmes they have, which are very interesting and innovative.

I welcome the Minister of State's answer. Something that has been reported recently, and certainly the employer representatives have mentioned it, is the National Training Fund, where there is €855 million this year, and it is predicted to increase to something between €1.4 billion and €1.9 billion by 2025. There is a very significant amount of money there. What do we need to do to unlock that money and is there a role for that kind of funding to develop apprenticeships for the various sectors as we reform our society?

Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank my colleague for raising this issue and I thank the Minister for the reply. Regarding wind turbines at sea, in view of the fact we do not have a huge amount of expertise in that area to date, I ask whether part of that funding would allow companies to have people work overseas for a period in order to get experience or necessary training. A number of other countries are well ahead of us regarding wind turbines at sea. We do not appear to have the relevant expertise here to the degree we need it if we want to develop that whole area very quickly.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the expansion of apprenticeships. I ask the Minister for an update on the waiting lists for accessing the class-based training for each of the stages and when that backlog is going to be cleared.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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We will get the Deputy a written update on that. We discussed it in the House previously. The Deputy knows that a lot of additional resources apply to that and there has been hiring of staff to address it. It is an issue. We will get the Department to furnish the Deputy with an exact update.

With regard to the national training fund, the Department is working closely with other Departments to develop options for application to the national training fund to support skills priorities and to develop our workforce. That is an area where we envisage Skillnet Ireland will have a role to play. I want to flag that at higher education level there are 14 courses in renewable energy which had been established under Springboard Plus 2021 and under the human capital initiative of Pillar 1.

As I am out of time, I will revert to Deputy Colm Burke with regard to offshore wind.