Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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62. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the extent to which he remains satisfied regarding the adequacy of sufficient persons with suitable skills to meet the requirements of the modern workforce; if he has identified any specific areas requiring attention in this regard; if adequate apprenticeships are available to meet the demand; the extent to which the quality of education at primary, secondary and third levels here continues to compare favourably with others globally; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1913/17]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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The National Skills Strategy 2025 identifies Ireland's current skills profile, provides a strategic vision and specific objectives for Ireland's future skills requirements, and sets out a road map for how the vision and objectives can be achieved across the education and training sector.

With over 140 Actions, the Strategy sets out the Government's commitment to improving and using skills for sustainable economic growth and outlines how we can develop a well-skilled, adaptable workforce.

The Programme for Government contains a commitment to increase the cumulative number of apprenticeship registrations to 31,000 by 2020, this figure is also in line with the target in the National Skills Strategy to increase registrations on apprenticeships in the period 2016-2020. A detailed action plan to deliver on these commitments will be published shortly.

The Action Plan for Education was launched in September 2016 and the vision of the Plan is that Irish Education and Training across primary, secondary and third level should become the best in Europe over the next decade. The plan contains hundreds of actions to be implemented with particular focus on skills, and continuous improvement within the education system. Whilst National and International assessments show that the Irish education and training system is performing well in a number of areas, there are a number of targets and indicators in the Plan focused on improving performances across the system in areas such as PISA performance in Science, Reading and Maths.