Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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90. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when retrofitting centres of excellence will open in 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43155/20]

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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A retrofitting centre of excellence is already underway in Waterford, Wexford Education and Training Board (ETB) while a further four ETBs are planning to have centres of excellence up and running in the first quarter of 2021. These are, Limerick Clare, Cork, Mayo Sligo Leitrim, and Laois Offaly, with further discussion on additional Dublin and Galway facilities.

It is anticipated that in 2020, 620 individuals will complete training courses in retrofit skills, including Near Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) skills and this number is expected to reach 1,000 in 2021. Work is also ongoing on the delivery of train-the-trainer programmes to ensure that the sector is appropriately positioned to expand to meet expected demand for programmes.

€500,000 was allocated within the July Jobs Stimulus to support development work to provide for the expansion of the National Retrofitting Programme. €8m has been allocated in 2021 to support retrofit specific skills which will provide for up to 500 places on new specialist retrofitting training courses targeted towards unemployed persons in addition to the expected increase of 400 places for existing programmes. This will increase the number of learners in retrofit specific programmes to over 1,500 per annum.