Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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165. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the uptake of the apprenticeship incentivisation scheme; and the breakdown by sector, programme and region. [39135/20]

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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The Apprenticeship Incentivisation Scheme (AIS) was initially funded under the July Stimulus programme and has been extended to mid-2021. It provides an employer grant of €3,000 for each new apprentice registered between 1st March 2020 and end June 2021. €2,000 of the grant is paid to the employer once the apprentice is registered, and a further €1,000 is paid after one year if the apprentice is still in employment at that time.

The impact of Covid-19 on businesses has resulted in a decrease of approximately 24% in new apprentice registrations for the year to end October (from 5,173 in 2019 to 3,952 in 2020). The introduction of the AIS has supported the recovery of apprentice registrations with September and October showing significant recovery compared to prior months, with October registrations (196) comparable to those of the prior year.

As of the 18^thNovember, 965 claims have been submitted online in respect of 1,667 apprentices. 522 of these claims have been approved in respect of 654 apprentice registrations to a value of €1.308m. Another 325 are currently awaiting approval, and the remainder have been sent back to employers for resubmission as incorrect or invalid information may have been provided.

A breakdown of the apprenticeship incentivisation scheme by sector, programme and region is included in the attached table.

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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166. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if consideration has been given to introducing an apprenticeship levy here as is the case in other countries. [39136/20]

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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Apprenticeship in Ireland is funded from the National Training Fund (NTF) which 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 NTF replaced the pre-existing Apprenticeship Levy which had been in place under The Industrial Training (Apprenticeship Levy) Act 1994. It is funded through an employer levy of 1% of reckonable earnings in respect of employees in classes A and H employments, representing approximately 75 per cent of all insured employees.

Apprenticeship is therefore currently funded by employers. The issue of future funding of apprenticeship is being considered in the context of the upcoming Apprenticeship Action Plan for Apprenticeship which is due to be finalised by the end of 2020.