Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 522: To ask the Minister for Defence when the apprentice school was closed; the number of apprentices taken into the apprentice school for each of the three years before its closure; the annual cost of running the apprentice school for each of the five years before its closure; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37576/06]

Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 524: To ask the Minister for Defence the number of apprentices that have entered the Defence Forces for each year since the apprentice school was closed; the way the training of these apprentices is organised; the average cost to train each of these apprentices for each year since the apprentice school closed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37578/06]

Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I propose to take Questions Nos. 522 and 524 together.

The Army Apprentice School at the former Devoy Barracks Naas was closed in September 1998.

There were only 28 apprentices remaining in the School at the time. The annual costs of running the Army Apprentice School were estimated to be about IR£2.85 million in 1998. Therefore, the average cost of training each apprentice had reached a level of IR£100,000 per annum per apprentice. These levels of expenditure were quite clearly unsustainable. The closure has not impacted adversely on the Defence Forces.

Eighteen (18) final year apprentices in the School at the time of closure attended the Dublin Institute of Technology for the purpose of completing their final training modules.

The remaining 10 apprentices (who were training in electronics/communications and who had entered the School in January 1998) were relocated to the School of Signals in the Curragh where they completed their training in mid 2001.

The number of apprentices taken into the apprentice school during its final year and during the three years prior to closure was as follows:

The Army Apprentice School came into operation in 1956 at a time when there was no formal training available for Army apprentices elsewhere. At the height of its activity and operations, up to sixty (60) apprentices were recruited each year and each apprentice spent three years in training at the School. The School would thus have accommodated some 180 apprentices overall at any one time during its peak years.

However, the number of Army apprentices had been falling steadily year on year since 1990. In the 1990s, the need to recruit apprentices to the Army reduced very considerably. This was due to a major structural change in traditional manpower/skill demand patterns due to policy and operational changes within the Defence Forces.

An Army Board established by the military authorities in 1992 examined the matter of apprentice training in the Defence Forces. Arising from their internal report of 1993, the then Chief of Staff recommended that the training of apprentices at the Army Apprentice School be discontinued and that existing external State training and educational agencies, such as FÁS and Regional Technical Colleges, would be much more appropriate for modern apprentice training, with apprentices attending academic and off the job training modules at third level educational facilities, as was already the case with Naval Service apprentices in the Naval Base at Haulbowline.

The internal military programme of vocational training for enlisted personnel comprises both the Technician Training Scheme and the recruitment and training of apprentices. The Trainee Technician Scheme was introduced in 1999 and provides modern technical and technological training to persons who are already serving within the Permanent Defence Force in an enlisted but non-technical capacity.

The scheme involves both 'in house' training in Defence Forces establishments and outplacement to FÁS and to third level centres of education such as regional Institutes of Technology for academic modules of courses. Apprentices, like the trainee technicians, undergo a mixture of 'on the job' training within the Defence Forces, FÁS training and external academic modules leading to recognized qualifications. For both groups, therefore, the programme structure provides 'on the job' training within the Defence Forces coupled with 'off the job' external provision of academic and other specialist training by regional Institutes of Technology and by FÁS. In general terms, only very specialised training, which is not available externally from civil sources, is now provided directly by the Defence Forces themselves.

The distinct and different technical training and apprenticeship needs of the Army, the Air Corps and the Naval Service are all kept under regular review by the appropriate military authorities. The types of training to be provided to selected enlisted personnel under the trainee technician scheme, and the needs for apprentice recruitment, are determined by the particular skills and service requirements of the Defence Forces over time.

The Naval Service and the Air Corps have long had their own independent training arrangements for training apprentices in the light of their own respective specialist needs in the area of skills and technology.

The following table shows the pattern of apprentice recruitment to the PDF from 1999 to date.