Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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631. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the average annual expenditure on apprentice accommodation allowances per apprentice in the system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39362/22]

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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632. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the average annual expenditure on apprentice travel allowances per apprentice in the system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39363/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 631 and 632 together.

The Education Shared Business Service (ESBS) which operates under the remit of the Department of Education act as a paying agent on behalf of Education and Training boards ETBs and accordingly, Apprentices are paid training allowances via the PeopleXD system by ESBS while they undertake off-the-job training.

All Apprentices are registered by ETBs on the SOLAS ACSS Apprenticeship system and this information is subsequently posted to the PeopleXD system for payment purposes.

The Deputy should note that ESBS took over the payment of Apprentices in Mar 2020 via the PeopleXD system. Prior to that, Apprentices were paid from the FAS TAPS legacy system.

Regarding the deputy’s question on average costs, there is not enough data available to determine average costs as the only full year figures available are from 2021 in which the total amount paid in craft allowances was €66.865m and due to the pandemic and the associated shutdown of educational and training facilities, these figures are not an accurate reflection of allowances paid to apprentices.