Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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9. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to develop and support further and higher education in County Monaghan. [49541/21]

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, there is a broad range of further education and training provision available from Cavan Monaghan Education and Training Board. It takes place in a wide range of settings including PLC programmes at Monaghan Institute, a wide range of adult and community education programmes, Youthreach, as well as apprenticeships, traineeships and other upskilling and reskilling opportunities.

Insofar as higher education provision within County Monaghan is concerned, Letterkenny IT has since 2019 collaborated with Monaghan Institute offering a level 7 Degree in Health and Social Care on an outreach basis. My objective of encouraging the development of a more integrated tertiary education system is intended to increase opportunities for this and other types of collaboration between higher and further education in the future.

Recognising the breadth and diversity of provision, the Future FET: Transforming Learning 2020-24 strategy is built around the three core pillars of building skills, fostering inclusion, and facilitating pathways. I am committed to realising the ambition set out in the strategy and the provision in Budget 2022 will support building the required capacity within the ETBs.

The investment under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan is expanding opportunities under the Skills to Compete and Green Skills Action programmes while the additional investment in apprenticeships will address the backlog and support the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025.

The Budget provision for Adult Literacy for Life will enable us to establish the partnership structures and initiate focused coordination support which are critical to delivering on the targets set for adult literacy, numeracy and digital literacy.

These developments, together with the step up in capital funding in the National Development Plan will strengthen FET provision across the country, supporting learners to gain relevant skills, while fostering inclusion and developing pathways for lifelong learning.