Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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120. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the costs associated with each step involved in developing national apprenticeships, from research and formulating the outline proposal, step 1, to rolling out the programme with employers and apprentices step 10. [2742/18]

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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121. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the assessment by the apprenticeships council regarding the 77 proposals received in the second call for new apprenticeship categories which closed on 1 September 2017; the apprenticeships that have been approved for roll-out; and the timeframe for operationalising each new approved apprenticeship. [2743/18]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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I propose to answer Questions Nos. 120 and 121 together.

The Apprenticeship Council has completed its assessment of the proposals received in the second call for apprenticeship proposals. Resulting from this, I recently announced 26 new programmes that have been approved for further development into national apprenticeships. These programmes span a wide range of skills and sectors including construction, engineering, horticulture and agriculture and are listed in the attached table. It is estimated that the development timeframe will take between 12 and 15 months.

There is no specific cost associated with each of the ten steps in developing national apprenticeships. Overall development funding is set by the lead proposer during the application stage. It is paid in two allocations, 50% at the beginning of the development process once the Apprenticeship Council has approved the project plan (step 3) and the balance on receipt of a project update, following formal approval of the apprenticeship occupational profile (step 5).