Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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169. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if the proposed Exchequer employer investment mechanism which would enable the NTF to be used to fund higher education institutions will require legislative amendment to the National Training Fund Act 2000. [30911/17]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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Funding from the NTF is allocated by my Department with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, in accordance with the provisions of the National Training Fund Act, 2000.

Section 7 of the National Training Fund Act, 2000 provides that payments may be made from the Fund in respect of schemes, which are established to:

(a) raise the skills of those in employment;

(b) provide training to those who wish to acquire skills to take up employment; or

(c) provide information in relation to existing, or likely future, requirements for skills in the economy.

The proposed exchequer employer investment mechanism which would enable an increase in the National Training Fund Levy to be used to benefit Further Education and Training and Higher Education would require legislative amendment. The National Training Fund Levy is set at 7% in the National Training Fund Act 2000 and any increase in this rate would require an amendment to the legislation. 

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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170. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 528 of 20 June 2017, if under the National Training Fund Act 2000, the annual surplus not the accumulated surplus which was €54 million in 2016, can be used to fund education undertaken at higher education institutions. [30912/17]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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While the NTF does not form part of the Vote of my Department, the allocation for each scheme is determined as part of the annual Estimates process. The NTF is included as an annex to the published Estimates of my Department and such funding is included in the overall expenditure ceiling for the Department since 2011. This means that overall expenditure from the Fund cannot be increased, even where receipts increase, without a corresponding drop in voted expenditure.

The surplus in the NTF in 2016 cannot be used to fund education undertaken at higher education institutions without my Department's overall exchequer funding being reduced by a similar amount.