Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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302. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of participants on training programmes for the unemployed run by SOLAS in each of the years from 2007 to 2016; if funding to these programmes will be reduced due to decreasing demand from unemployed persons; and the reason expenditure on these programmes increased in 2016 compared to 2014 and 2015 in view of the general reduction in unemployment. [19201/17]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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I have provided a table giving the number of participants on training programmes for the unemployed in each of the years 2007 to 2016.  This shows a significant decrease in the number of unemployed people availing of training over the last number of years due to the upturn in the economy.

In line with this there has been a rebalancing of the funding allocated for training with more funding being allocated to training those in employment and less allocated to training for unemployed people.  Expenditure on training programmes for unemployed people has decreased from €288.4 million in 2013 to €266 million in 2016 and is being further reduced to €258.6 million this year.

The savings on training for the unemployed are being used to provide additional funding to support training for those in employment, particularly for apprenticeships.

Number of Participants on Training Programmes for Unemployed 2007 - 2016