Frank O'Rourke (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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127. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will amend areas of the existing legislation surrounding apprenticeships and traineeships, as per the areas of legislation that have been identified as in need of change and as have been notified to him by a business representative organisation (details supplied) in order to support and promote apprenticeships and traineeships, given that the current legislation is almost 50 years old and therefore impractical, no longer fit for purpose and needs to be amended; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22989/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The business representative organisation referred to in the Deputy's Question made a submission on my Department's new Statement of Strategy in which they suggested placing the Apprenticeship Council on a statutory footing but did not include details of other legislative changes sought in this area.

The Review of Apprenticeship Training in Ireland, undertaken by an independent group, recommended that the statutory framework for apprenticeship should be more open and flexible. The Implementation Plan subsequently published by my Department took the approach of moving ahead with the development and roll-out of new apprenticeships and examining any legislative change that might be required in the light of that process. The development process has been progressing well and a number of new apprenticeships will commence recruitment this year. This demonstrates that it has been possible to advance new apprenticeship proposals within the existing statutory framework.

I intend to keep this area under review as the new apprenticeships become operational but no specific legislative proposals are currently being developed.