Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)
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85. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of apprenticeships commenced through local authorities for the years 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37312/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Under section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, each Chief Executive is responsible for the staffing and organisational arrangements necessary for carrying out the functions of the local authority for which he or she is responsible.

My Department oversees workforce planning for the local government sector, including the monitoring of local government sector employment levels. To this end, my Department gathers aggregate quarterly data on staff numbers in each local authority on a whole time equivalent basis. However, granular data, in terms of the specific role and function of each individual staff member is not collected and consequently is not available in my Department. The relevant information would be available from individual local authorities.

I am aware that the local government sector participates in the employer-led national apprenticeship programme which falls under the remit of my colleague, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

The Public Sector Agreement highlights that the Sector is committed to increasing the number of apprenticeships through Co-operation with the objectives of the Public Sector Apprenticeship Plan, with a view to increasing the number of Apprenticeships and developing further opportunities for apprenticeships across the sector. This is further supported by Action 12 in the Local Government Sector's Strategic Framework for Workforce Planning which is available on my Department's website here:

The Guide on employing Apprentices for the Public Sector developed by the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has been produced to support the Public Service Apprenticeship Plan which is a key deliverable under the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021 -2025. This Plan sets out the pathway to significantly grow the uptake of apprenticeships with an annual target of 150 for the local authority sector.