John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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There are currently 34 apprenticeships in operation in Ireland, which includes nine new consortia-led apprenticeships recently developed in areas such as hospitality, insurance, accounting and financial services. Two further programmes in ICT, network engineer and software developer, have been validated by Quality and Qualifications Ireland, QQI, and will have their first intake of apprentices in the coming months. Further new apprenticeships are to be submitted for validation to QQI shortly and, subject to successful validation, are expected to get underway in 2018.

In addition, following a second call for new apprenticeship proposals in 2017, a further 26 new programmes 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. It is estimated that the development process will take between 12 and 15 months.