Carol Nolan (Offaly, Independent)
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579. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the proposal for the piloting of an incentivisation scheme by Skillnet Ireland to support business engagement in upskilling; the eligibility criteria for participating businesses; the specific budget earmarked for this pilot in 2026; the expected date of commencement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29354/26]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I can advise that the pilot scheme in question seeks to incentivise Irish small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across all business sectors to upskill and reskill their employees in Artificial Intelligence (AI) skills.

Further to an allocation of €2m in Budget 2026, it is intended that the scheme will operate a cost recovery system for Irish SMEs, enabling business owners to reclaim labour costs incurred in staff attending AI-related training programmes. These recoverable costs comprise salary costs proportional to the time spent training alone.

The scheme will be open to Irish SMEs across all business sectors which have staff engaging in eligible training.

My Department is currently progressing the proposal with Government colleagues at the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation. Funding was allocated in Budget 2026 and it is intended to commence the Scheme this year.