Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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1033. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of increasing apprentice wage to the minimum wage. [39507/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Minimum wage legislation, which falls under the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, does not apply to the remuneration of a person who is an apprentice within the meaning of or under the Industrial Training Act, 1967, or the Labour Services Act, 1987.

Neither SOLAS nor my department is involved in the setting of wages for apprentices.

Apprentices are employees and party to a contract of employment with their employers. For the majority of the 25 craft apprenticeship programmes, there are long-standing industrial relations mechanisms for determining pay where collective bargaining between industry and employee representatives determines rates. In the construction industry these rates are underpinned by a sectoral employment order. These arrangements cover most sectors where craft apprenticeships are available.

In the case of the 52 consortia-led apprenticeship programmes wages are agreed between the apprentice and the employer in the contract of employment.

As there is currently no collective bargaining mechanism for determining gross wage norms for apprentices on consortia-led apprenticeships, it is not possible to estimate the cost of extending training allowances for off-the-job training to this cohort.