Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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778. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to address the situation that enough persons (details supplied) with suitable trades are not becoming available in the workforce here; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1044/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Training for the trades in question is managed through the apprenticeship programme. It should be noted that apprenticeships are employer led and the number of apprenticeship registrations has seen a steady increase across a range of apprenticeships over the last few years. The forecast for future apprenticeship registrations remains strong. New apprenticeship registrations in 2014 were up 47% on 2013 (1,853 versus 1,264) for the first nine months of 2014. SOLAS are planning and managing training capacity to meet the increased demand.

In 2014 two new apprenticeship trades were also launched - Pipe Fitting and Stone Cutting & Stonemasonry. These are important niche trades for which steady demand is forecast.

In addition, a call for proposals is currently being managed by the new Apprenticeship Council for the development of apprenticeships in new areas.