Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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83. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills how he plans to increase the number of apprenticeships and traineeships in 2017 and 2018 without any increase in funding for skills in budget 2017. [32444/16]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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Budget 2017 saw an additional €20 million made available from the National Training Fund (NTF) to provide for increased apprenticeship and traineeship activity in 2017.  This has been made available through rebalancing NTF expenditure in 2017 due to reduced demand for training for unemployed people due to the continued economic growth and the improving employment position.

The 2018 allocation will be considered through the budgetary process, taking into account forecast increased participation in existing apprenticeships and traineeships and the costs of development and roll out of new apprenticeship programmes and career traineeships.