Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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87. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the details of his plans to bring further apprenticeship opportunities to young persons in Cork city in particular the re-establishment of painting apprenticeships. [6364/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Apprenticeships are employer led demand-driven educational and training programmes, which aim to develop the skills of an apprentice in order to meet the needs of industry and the labour market. As apprentices are employees the demand for and number of apprentices is primarily dictated by the employer base in any area or sector.

Apprenticeship registrations in 2021 were the highest they have been since 2007, with 8,607 apprentices employed on 62 programmes. 6,955 registrations were in craft apprenticeship programmes, with over 60% of these in the Electrical, Plumbing and Carpentry and Joinery crafts. The current apprentice population is over 24,000, the highest it has been since 2009.

Apprenticeships 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/Technological Universities, 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.

There is currently a population of 113 apprentices in Painting and Decorating as of December 2021, with 43 apprentices newly registering last year.

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 previously advised in 2020, when the Deputy asked this question before, that it maintained a Painting and decorating workshop, following the decline of painting and decorating apprenticeship training ten years ago. My Department will follow up with Cork ETB to clarify if this is still the case and advise the Deputy if there are plans to re-establish painting apprenticeships in Cork at any point in the future.