Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 353: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the mechanism he has put in place in view of the publication of the National Skills Strategy by the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs in March 2007 to consider and give effect to its recommendations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25341/07]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The effective implementation of the National Skills Strategy requires an integrated approach jointly led by my own Department, by the Department of Education & Science and that successfully involves all of the key agencies in the education and training sectors.

Since the publication of the Strategy progress has been made in several areas. I asked the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs to examine the potential of a number of innovative measures to incentivise both employers and employees to more fully engage in education and training. The measures under review include paid learning leave, individual learning accounts for employees, brokerage services to help firms identify training needs and source suitable training, and the potential of regional advisory groups.

I look forward to receiving the views of the Expert Group on these measures and on their potential to contribute to meeting the targets contained in the National Skills Strategy.

In revising the Expert Group on Future Skills Need's mandate a continuing focus on the National Skills Strategy is provided for through: requiring that an annual report of work undertaken by the Expert Group be prepared each year, and that the chairperson of the Expert Group meet at least once annually with the Minister of Education and Science and the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Obviously a central element of such meetings between the Ministers and the Chairperson will be to comprehensively assess the implementation of the National Skills Strategy.

Earlier this year I also established the Management Development Council, which brings together the key providers and users of SME management development training in Ireland. The Council has been charged with examining the existing management development provision, while profiling gaps and proposing solutions to address them.

Finally the Upskilling Co-ordination Group, also set up in the course of this year and chaired by an official of my Department, brings together representatives of FÁS, Skillnets, Enterprise Ireland, the County Enterprise Boards and Forfas. The core work of this group is to ensure the most effective and strategic application of public budgets provided for the continuing training of those at work.

The group is also tasked with ensuring that the emphasis placed on upskilling workers on lower rungs of the vocational ladder — as committed to in both Towards 2016 and in the National Development Plan — is progressively being realised through the training programmes administered by the organisations involved and those contracted to deliver training and development programmes on their behalf.

The Government remains fully committed to upskilling and the implementation of the National Skills Strategy. This year the State will invest approximately €70 million in the training of those in employment. This represents a significant increase in investment when you consider that in 2004 the state invested €8 million in this area.