Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 319: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the details of her commitment to providing adequate funding for training for personnel employed in the forestry sector including machine operators, contractors, chainsaw operators and so on; the level of funding provided to a company (details supplied) in 2008 in this regard; the level of ongoing funding estimated to be required by her Department to meet demands in the forestry sector for the foreseeable future and specifically the position in relation to tenders received by the company for the appointment of contractors for this training in 2008; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16417/08]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The company to which the Deputy refers is a group set up to ascertain the training and education needs within the forestry sector, to develop and prioritise training programmes and to fund training to address the needs identified. The initial impetus for this initiative came from the sector itself when a diverse number of organisations, representative of various elements within the forest sector, made a submission to my Department in 2005 for funding of forestry training. My Department's funding of this training initiative is consistent with the policy contained in "Growing for the Future", the Government policy document on forestry published in 1996, which concluded that policy on education and training will be "to ensure the availability and delivery of suitable programmes of education and training to cater for the increasing number of new entrants into forestry and the growth in scale and diversity in the sector".

My Department is committed to providing funding of up to a maximum of €720,000 for this initiative in 2008. The level of ongoing funding to be provided each year will be dependent on the examination of the submission made by the group and available public funds.

Generally, the supply of training has to be put out to tender by the group. I understand that the group plans to tender for and issue contracts on a periodic basis during 2008, that a number of contracts have been agreed and a number of training courses have been completed to date in 2008.