Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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3308. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the quality controls in place regarding the training provided by a company (details supplied) for special needs assistants or SNAs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43084/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) is the state agency responsible for promoting the quality, integrity and reputation of Ireland’s further and higher education system. One of the main roles of QQI is to validate educational and training programmes.

QQI programme validation is a regulatory process which ensures that any new programme being proposed by a provider to lead to a QQI award has been fully evaluated and approved before it is offered to learners. This means that programmes which have been validated by QQI lead to an award that is:

quality-assured;

nationally and internationally recognised; and

placed on the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ).

The company referred to by the Deputy currently offers two Special Needs Assisting (SNA) programmes which have been validated by QQI. These programmes lead to QQI NFQ Level 5 and Level minor awards.

Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)
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3309. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated income, expenditure and surplus in the national training fund for 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44078/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I can confirm to the Deputy that as per the Revised Estimates for Public Services 2025, the income of the National Training Fund is forecast at nearly €1.3 billion with expenditure forecast at just over €1 billion and these forecasts result in an expected annual surplus of nearly €230 million.

Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)
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3310. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if a report on national training fund spending, and its impact on training and education provision, will be published by his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44079/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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In 2024, my Department commissioned the ESRI to develop a roadmap framework to monitor and assess the effectiveness of the various schemes funded through the National Training Fund (NTF). The research examined the extent to which the various schemes can be readily evaluated by identifying the methodological framework most suitable for each respective scheme, given its objectives, and the extent to which the data infrastructure is currently consistent with evaluation requirements.

The report is currently being finalised with the aim of publishing it by year end.

Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)
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3311. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills how the national training fund's investment in higher education will be used to implement the funding the future strategy; how the €50 million allocated from the NTF for higher education core funding in 2025 has been invested; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44080/25]

Donna McGettigan (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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3393. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide details on the breakdown of costs from the funding the future programme, as announced in June 2025 as part of the amendment of the National Training Fund Act over a six-year period from 2025 to 2030, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42992/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 3311 and 3393 together.

As part of the National Training Fund (NTF) package approved in Budget 2025 it was agreed that core funding to the higher education sector would be increased by €150 million, with €50 million NTF funding agreed for 2025 and a further additional €25 million for each year thereafter up to and including 2029.

This aligns with the Funding the Future Framework, published by Government in 2022, which identified an amount of €307 million as representing the increase in core funding required to deliver enhanced performance, strategic reforms and strengthened quality of outcomes. Over the three budgets since the publication of Funding the Future, a total of €164.4 million additional funding has been secured in Exchequer and employer funding. The €164.4 million figure includes €58.7 million that was secured in Budget 2025, of which €50 million was allocated from the NTF.

Over a number of years, additional core funding is being prioritised through the Estimates process in order to deliver on the increased level of funding identified in the framework and to improve system capacity to respond to national priorities.