Catherine Callaghan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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161. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason a disparity in pay exists in how some apprentices are supported during their off-the-job phases of their training, that is, engineering metal fabrication apprentices are paid according to outdated 2016 training allowance rates, while construction metal fabrication apprentices receive the updated 2025 rates for the very same level of skill and commitment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37600/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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When craft apprentices attend “off-the-job” training in Education and Training Board or Higher Education facilities they receive a fortnightly State-paid training allowance. This is not a wage and there is no contract of employment between SOLAS and the apprentice.

Neither SOLAS nor my Department are involved in the setting of wages for craftspersons or apprentices. Nonetheless, the State training allowance is aligned to gross wage norms for the industry in which the apprentice is employed and to the phase or year of training the apprentice is in. The allowance is not paid on the basis of the apprenticeship programme in which the apprentice is registered.

This explains why an apprentice employed in the engineering sector is paid a different allowance to an apprentice employed in the construction sector even though they both may be doing the metal fabrication apprenticeship programme.

The engineering sector has not been able to set gross wage norms for apprentices through collective bargaining as have the other sectors in which apprentices are employed such as the construction sector, where rates are further underpinned by a sectoral employment order.