Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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160. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his views on whether a deficit of construction skills is holding back construction activity especially on the residential side; and his further views on whether the forecasts for new apprenticeship registrations on page 11 of the DEIS Action Plan to Expand New Apprenticeships will not be sufficient to meet labour demand to expand housing supply to 43,000 homes per annum by 2020 which is now required. [29195/17]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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As the Deputy is aware apprenticeship is a demand driven alternance educational and training programme and the allocation of provision is determined by the skill demands of employers.

SOLAS, through its Skills and Labour Market and Research Unit (SLMRU) and its Apprenticeship Services Unit, regularly conducts forecasts of apprenticeship requirements.  The SLMRU has developed a comprehensive methodology to generate five-year forecasts of apprentice intake for construction trades. The forecasts are revised annually and are due to be updated later this year.  The methodology takes account of output forecasts, in money terms, for various segments of the construction industry, the CSO’s Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) and the relationship between apprentice intake and employment trends in the sectors.  While labour market trends remain difficult to predict in a rapidly changing labour market, SOLAS is satisfied there is sufficient provision in place, at this juncture, to meet both current and future demands from the construction sector.

Registrations in craft apprenticeships are forecast to increase from 3,742 in 2016 to 5,587 in 2020 and SOLAS predicts that new registrations in construction apprenticeships will account for 70% of total registrations across all craft apprenticeships.