Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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As part of the annual 2019 Spending Review process, DPER conducted a review of participation and costs associated with Apprenticeships. As the Deputy will be aware from my previous response, the Spending Review process aims to subject key policies and expenditure programmes across the whole of Government to critical assessment in support of the service-wide agenda of evidence-informed policy making, ensuring value for money and effective policy. Similar to previous cycles, as part of the 2020-2022 cycle of the Spending Review process, programmes and areas to be assessed, either individually or collaboratively, are selected by each Department on an annual basis. As part of this year’s Spending Review, officials in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, working with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, collaborated on a paper on demographic projections in Higher Education which is planned to be published shortly. Topics for analysis as part of the 2023 Spending Review are still under consideration and are a matter of ongoing discussion between DPER officials and colleagues in other departments.