Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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185. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the way in which proposals to increase the national training fund levy, such as those in his Department's consultation paper on the employer's contribution to further and higher education, will be accommodated within the expenditure ceiling of his department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18679/17]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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The consultative paper explains that the operation of EU Fiscal Rules and the inclusion of National Training Fund (NTF) in my Department's overall annual expenditure ceiling means that additional expenditure cannot be sourced from the NTF without a corresponding drop in Exchequer expenditure, in the absence of an increased rate of contribution.

The increased rate of contribution referred to is the proposed increase in the rate of the training levy.  The fiscal rules allow public expenditure to increase when new discretionary raising measures are introduced.