Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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114. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the re-establishment of painting apprenticeships in Cork city. [40741/20]

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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Apprenticeships are national programmes and are offered by employers throughout the country. Off-the-job training for the 25 craft apprenticeship programmes is held in Training Centres and Institutes of Technology/TU Dublin, with certain locations specialising in specific apprenticeship programmes due to the need for specific workshop equipment and trainer expertise.

The number of new apprenticeship registrations for wet trades dropped during the last economic downturn and has not recovered at the same rate as other construction trades. Since 2015 an average of 30 new painting and decorating apprentices have registered each year. This represents roughly 10-20% of pre-recession numbers and as of 30th October 2020, only 16 new apprentices had registered to the trade this year. Consequently, existing Phase 2 training provision for the Painting and Decorating National Apprenticeship is undertaken by the City of Dublin ETB, in its Training Centre in Ballyfermot, Dublin. Phase 4 & 6 training is delivered within TU Dublin's City Campus.

It should be noted that in situations where apprentices are required to move from their current place of residence in order to take up an offer of a training place they are entitled to make an application for an accommodation allowance, in addition to their weekly training allowance, for the duration of the off-the-job training.

Cork Education and Training Board have advised that it still maintains a Painting and Decorating workshop, which has been converted for the delivery of signwriting training for the unemployed following the decline of painting and decorating apprenticeship training ten years ago. The workshop remains available as a location for apprenticeship training should the demand arise in the future.