John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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235. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the steps he is taking to address the skills shortages experienced by many companies across all sectors, for example, the majority in information technology, life sciences and construction; the actions being taken to deal with severe skills shortages in the economy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42329/18]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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The education and training system at all levels has a number of strategies in place to ensure we meet existing and future skills demands in the workplace. Among those strategies are the National Skills Strategy 2025 and the Action Plan for Education 2016-2019.

In addition, recently announced in the Budget, a major new Human Capital Initiative is to be established within the National Training Fund to allocate €300 million from the Fund’s surplus, over the period 2020-2024 to meet the future skills needs of the economy and provide additional investment at levels 6-8 in higher education. This investment will underpin the provision of additional capacity across the higher education sector to meet the priority skill needs of enterprise, to drive regional jobs growth and development, and support key economic sectors in responding to the challenges of Brexit.