Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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55. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the steps he will take to increase the number of apprenticeships; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15918/23]

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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My first question relates to apprenticeships. I ask the Minister to bring us up to date on what is happening in relation to apprenticeships and the step he is taking to increase their number and to address the backlogs in the system.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh for her question. Increasing the number of people availing of apprenticeships is a key priority for me and my Department. The Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025 sets out the vision for apprenticeships. This includes new ways of structuring, funding and promoting apprenticeships to make them more accessible to employers and, crucially, to learners.

To date the programmes on offer through this model have expanded to address areas of skills shortages such as engineering, technology, logistics and fintech. The development of new apprenticeship programmes is intended to help deliver on the commitments made in the programme for Government to support and drive the economy while addressing the skills requirements identified in the economy. This is evidenced by the variety of apprenticeship programmes now available, totalling 66 programmes. Indeed, eight new programmes were launched over 2020 and 2021, despite pandemic restrictions and I want to acknowledge and thank all those who made that possible. A further four programmes were launched in 2022, meaning that 12 new programmes were launched between 2020 and 2022. An additional 12 programmes across technology, engineering, farming, horticulture and hospitality are planned for launch this year, with a further 12 behind that in various stages of development.

We passed amendments in this House to the Industrial Training Act of 1967 as part of the Higher Education Authority Act 2022 and this widened the scope for new apprenticeship programmes even further in an expanded range of sectors, including in agriculture.

Under budget 2023 an additional €30 million in funding was secured for apprenticeships. This will provide for 4,500 new registrations across both craft and consortia-led programmes. A further €400,000 is provided for social inclusion measures to help make the apprenticeship population more representative of the general population.

In 2022, we saw 8,286 registrations and an apprenticeship population of 26,000. I am really encouraged to say that so far this year, we have seen 1,301 new registrations to the end of February. That represents an increase of 30% on the same two months of last year.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister for his response. In 2016 the Government set a target of 9,000 annual apprenticeship registrations by 2020 but here we are in 2023, and we still have not reached that target. The Government set a new target of 10,000 in 2020. The Minister has said that we are making progress towards that but we have not even reached the old target. Back in 2016 we did not even understand the desperate need for construction skills that we would have today.

The Government has not substantially increased apprenticeships in the public and semi-State sector. Does every county council across the State employ apprentices? Have we a measure of that? The ESB appeared before the Oireachtas Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science recently. The apprenticeship model used by the ESB in terms of involving national school, secondary school and beyond really needs to be extended to the local authorities.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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First, we have never had more apprentice registrations than we saw in 2021. Registrations that year were the highest ever. That said, I appreciate the point the Deputy made. We obviously had the global pandemic but we are seeing a very significant acceleration of apprenticeships. The Deputy does not have to take my word for that. She can ask business groups around the country, the education and training boards, ETBs, with which she engages, the technological universities and the National Apprenticeship Office and they will confirm that there is real momentum behind increasing the numbers and also the composition of the numbers in terms of diversity. We are trying to diversify the apprenticeship population and there is a lot more work to be done on that in terms of gender. We are also trying to broaden the range of apprenticeships so they are not just seen as craft-related, although those are key, but in other areas as well.

I could not agree more with the Deputy in relation to public sector apprenticeships. From memory, we are at about 300 in the public sector but I will confirm that to the Deputy in writing. The plan sets a target of 750 public sector apprenticeships by 2025. To be quite frank, I am going to make a decision very shortly that if we cannot get there voluntarily, we will look at imposing a quota system to make sure everyone takes their fair share.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I really welcome that. If one takes the figure of 300, that is the number of apprenticeships the ESB alone does every year. The local authorities have been dragging their feet on this. We need to sit down with them, examine why that is the case and determine what are the blockages. We need to be able to facilitate the local authorities as well as giving them the responsibility for ensuring that more apprenticeships happen.

The Government has not used public procurement contracts to incentivise large construction companies to increase the number of apprentices they employ. There is a real onus on the Government to ensure this is a condition of public procurement contracts, which may require liaison with the EU. There is a connection between the missed apprenticeship targets and the housing targets. This has really come into focus in the last few months. If one looks at retrofitting and all of the things that we need apprentices and skilled people for, it is clear that we need to use every tool available to us.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I am not reopening another debate on housing but I would just point out that the Housing for All targets were met in the last calendar year. There are precisely 320 public sector apprenticeships as of now, with 100 more planned for this year. If we include the semi-State sector as well, the total is 938 apprenticeships. There are 938 apprentices in the public and semi-State sectors combined. There are 320 in the public sector alone, with another 100 to be added.

I had a very interesting meeting with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, and other individual unions in recent weeks. We need both the carrot and stick here. There is a need for all parts of the public sector to step up and do more. Some really have done so but others have not. There is also a need for me, on behalf of the Government, to better understand any of the blockages that they encounter and how we can overcome them. I am very confident that we will get to the target of 750 by 2025. In fact, I see it as absolutely vital and how we get there is something I intend to bottom out over the next few weeks. I am expecting to bring a memo to Government on public sector apprenticeships between now and the summer.

Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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We will move on.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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We could talk about apprenticeships all day.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Yes, absolutely.