Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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786. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 1326 of 21 April 2021, the annual and reserve surplus of the NTF by 2025 if expenditure remained stable but excluding Covid-19 emergency spending; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22243/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The National Training Fund (NTF) Act, 2000 provides for a levy on employers to be used to fund the development of and raising of skills amongst those in, or seeking, employment.

The reserve surplus of the NTF by 2025 if expenditure remained stable (excluding Covid emergency spending) is €1.8 billion. See table below for further details.

Table – NTF projected surplus (€’000)

^A2021 Levy is as per 2021 published Revised Estimates. Levy for 2022 onwards is as forecasted by the Department of Social Protection in April 2021.

^BThe level of ESF receipts to the NTF in any year depends on the amounts certified to and reimbursed by the Commission in that year in respect of NTF funded activities. For the purpose of this request ESF income continues to be shown at the 2021 published figure in the Revised Estimates.

^CAs per draft NTF 2020 Accounts.

The operation of the EU Fiscal Rules, prior to Covid-19, and the inclusion of the NTF in the Department's overall annual expenditure ceiling has meant that, in the absence of an increased rate of contribution or the availability of additional fiscal space, additional expenditure could not be sourced from the NTF without a corresponding drop in Exchequer expenditure. So while the surplus has built up over previous years due to improvements seen in the economic and labour market situation before Covid-19 started to impacted in 2020, it was not possible to increase expenditure beyond that generated by the increase in the levy.

There has been very substantial growth in NTF spending in recent years on the basis of the +0.1% increase in the Training Levy in both 2018 and 2019 with expenditure increasing by €58m (16%) and €69m (17%) respectively. This has supported a very significant expansion in NTF priorities. The Training Levy increased in Budget 2020 to 1% allowing a further increase in NTF spending of €77m.

The NTF Advisory Group continues to be the mechanism to inform and guide on investment from the Fund and the use of the surplus. The Group has set out a detailed work plan over the next two years to examine a range of themes that will ultimately guide upskilling and reskilling priorities for the NTF into the future.