Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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494. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will establish modern-day craft programmes to facilitate apprenticeships in key areas such as in cooking and food preparation, where the apprentice is trained in the craft, receives work experience, and is paid. [40659/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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A comprehensive review of the Irish apprenticeship system was undertaken by an independent review group that reported in December 2013. Following consideration of their recommendations and consultation with stakeholders a new Apprenticeship Council was appointed in November 2014.

The first task of the Apprenticeship Council was to issue a call for proposals from consortia of industry and education and training providers for new apprenticeships with a deadline of end March 2015. The response to the call was very strong, with 86 proposals received across a range of sectors of the economy.

The Council evaluated the proposals received making recommendations on proposals that should be prioritised for development into sustainable apprenticeships. The Council assigned the proposals to three categories, with category one proposals, which were adjudged to be both sustainable and ready to enter a detailed planning and development stage, being the initial priority for development.

The outcome of the evaluation process has resulted in the placement of 25 submissions in category 1; 35 in category 2 and 25 in category 3.

Under category 1 the new sectors for apprenticeships include Manufacturing and Engineering, Tourism and Sport, Financial Services, Information Technology Transport Distribution and Logistics and Business Administration and Management.

Within the Category 1 group, there are proposals at varying stages of development and it is anticipated that some project plans will need more work. Once plans have been considered and approved, the Council will prepare a detailed overall development timeline for the category one proposals. It is envisaged that the majority of programmes would be in a position to move to enrolment in 2016.