Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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183. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if there will be no replacement of Exchequer funding with funding from the National Training Fund in budget 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41634/19]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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Since 2017 the National Training Fund (NTF) has been deployed to support close-to-labour-market skills programmes in areas of identified skills needs through support for enterprise-focused higher education programmes.  

The use of the NTF to fund priority skills-focused programmes in higher education is fully consistent with the detailed recommendations of the Independent Review of the National Training Fund carried out by the economic consultants Indecon and published in August 2018. The report specifically recommended utilising the NTF to support investment in Higher Education.

The targeted support of these key skill areas from the NTF has facilitated broader investment in higher education from the Department of Education and Skills so that since 2017, a re-distribution of funding between the NTF and Exchequer in tandem with the levy increases has been implemented on a phased basis. 

In 2020, €28.2 million of previously exchequer funded enterprise focussed higher education programmes will now be funded by the NTF which will allow the exchequer to invest additonal resources in key initiatives in higher education such as the technological universities transformation fund and higher education research excellence.  

It is important to note that there has been a continuing increase in investment in higher education funded by the Exchequer over recent years, including a €60m increase in in current funding to provide for increased student number over the three year period 2018-2020.