Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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346. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the expenditure of the National Training Fund levy in grants to industry; and the amount that goes towards the funding of access to Safe Pass courses for workers. [36645/18]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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The National Training Fund (NTF), which is funded by the National Training Fund levy, was established by the National Training Fund Act, 2000, as a dedicated fund to support the training of those in employment, and those seeking employment. The Act also provides for the funding of research to provide information on existing and likely future skills requirements of the economy.

Funding is provided to both the IDA and Enterprise Ireland under a Training Grants to Industry heading from the NTF. This initiative provides grants to industry in order to up-skill the workforce.

The allocation for 2018 is as follows:

IDA - €3.0m

Enterprise Ireland - €3.5m

Safe Pass is a one day safety awareness programme aimed at construction workers.  The aims of the programme are to raise the standard of safety awareness in the construction industry and so that all construction workers after completing the one day awareness programme can make a positive contribution to the prevention of accidents and ill health while working on the site.

The Safe Pass programme, which is operated and managed by SOLAS, is self-financing and therefore does not receive an allocation from the National Training Fund.