Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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86. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the areas of acute shortage of skilled workers in the public sector; and the initiatives he is considering to bridge the gap through instruments such as Springboard, dedicated public service apprenticeships, traineeships, and so on. [27048/24]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I am committed to engaging with all Departments and agencies to ensure our Tertiary Education Sector rises to meet the demands of our public sector workforce requirements.

Particular focus has been paid to skills challenges across health and social care services. This work is being undertaken in collaboration with the Department of Health and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, to increase the number of places in disciplines with acute health care and medical skills shortages.

In July 2022, an increase in medicine places was announced for EU students in Irish Medical Schools, alongside the Minister for Health. The agreement reached with the medical schools led to an increase of 60 places in September 2022, climbing to 120 in September 2023, and up to 200 by 2026. This will mean by 2026 an additional 200 students will commence medicine each year.

In July 2023, the creation of over 400 additional healthcare places in higher education institutions in the State was announced. This represents meaningful additionality within existing infrastructure, and it comes on top of substantial expansion in nursing in recent years.

There has long been a tradition of apprenticeship in the public sector. In May 2024, there are 243 apprentices employed by 35 public sector employers and 128 apprentices employed by 23 Civil Service departments and their agencies. Apprentices are in a diverse range of areas such as software engineering, cybersecurity, accounting and recruitment.

My Department launched the Public Service Apprenticeship Plan jointly with the Department for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform in August 2023, a key deliverable under the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025 and a flagship initiative of the Better Public Services Strategy under the Workforce and Organisation of the Future pillar.

The Plan drives the uptake of apprenticeship across the public service, as well as the development of apprenticeships that respond to areas of acute skills shortages.

The launch of the Social Work apprenticeship in May 2024 is an excellent example of this initiative, supporting TUSLA and the HSE to secure a pipeline of skilled social workers in the public service. This target deliverables and governance actions are set out in the Public Service Apprenticeship Plan 2023.

Other areas of skills shortages identified under the Plan are under development, including a Digital Marketing and Media apprenticeship which is due to be launched later this year.