Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I would like to address the issue of the national apprenticeship training placement system. I understand apprenticeship scheduling is currently carried out on a national basis by co-ordinating providers and all efforts are made to schedule apprentices to their nearest available training location. If this is not possible, they will be called to the next nearest available location. However, the system is restricted by the availability of training spaces within the pool of college providers for the craft in question. In some instances, apprentices in Kerry have been assigned to a programme in Dundalk and apprentices in Dundalk to programmes in Kerry. There are similar cases elsewhere.

Apprentices are entitled to request rescheduling should a college location not be their preference. They are only permitted to request a reschedule up to three times. When an offer is refused, the length of the delay will be specific to when the next available scheduled class is due to commence. It is my understanding that there is no guarantee that a closer location would be available for those who request it.

It is clear from speaking to constituents in County Kerry that apprentices are being sent unacceptable distances for their necessary training. This issue disproportionately affects rural and working-class families and those without personal transport. The current system discourages these individuals from pursuing careers in their desired trades at a time when we are facing a huge shortage of skilled labour. I appreciate that the Government has put significant resources into dealing with the backlog in the system, which is falling significantly. Credit is due here and I urge the Government to continue to work on that. However, I ask the Minister and his Department to work to find a solution for those apprentices travelling long distances to training centres by allocating increased resources to build capacity in current training centres and develop new training facilities across the country. Another issue is the short notice when trying to acquire accommodation, in particular given the national housing crisis.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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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.

Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for his detailed response and the work he is doing in this area. I would like to briefly mention Kerry ETB, of which I was a member for many years. I know first-hand the tremendous variety of courses provided there. I would like to take this opportunity to ask the Minister to increase the number of courses provided in all of our colleges, not just in Kerry but throughout the country. I believe that is important.

I mentioned middle and low income earners and how difficult it is to pay for and acquire accommodation at short notice. I would like to see an effort being made in that regard to give better incentives, more time and improved assistance for families if at all possible. I again thank the Minister for his response.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for his advocacy. I appreciate that there can be short notice - I understand it is typically seven days from a letter of offer to a response. If an apprentice is not in a position to take up the offer that time, it is given to the next person on the list. There are two competing goals. One is to keep the system moving and keep apprentices on the waiting list moving forward through the queue while at the same time accommodating people's preferences in terms of region or location in order that they can continue their studies.

As I said, it may not always be the closest location but it is the next on the list at that particular time. Timeliness and location are the two competing issues. There can be anomalies, which I have seen in cases raised with me. If the Deputy wants to raise a particular case or cases, I would be happy to take a detailed note on that. Perhaps I can engage with the Deputy off-line to see whether we can progress a particular issue for him.