James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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257. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the timeline for the establishment of the National Skills Observatory committed to in the National Digital and AI Strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22069/26]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I am establishing a National Skills Observatory to help enhance Ireland’s future skills pipeline and provide education and training responses with greater precision and foresight.

The National Skills Observatory will strengthen our skills intelligence landscape, providing a more joined up approach. The Observatory will act as a central repository for labour market and skills information in Ireland, facilitating clearer, data-driven insights into current and emerging skills needs, enabling more responsive planning across education, training and the labour market.

The establishment of the Observatory follows my Department’s detailed consideration of the National Skills Council’s inaugural advice to Government last year and specific recommendations from the OECD’s review of Ireland’s Skills Strategy (2023). Those recommendations centred on improving our range and level of skills data, strengthening information on training outcomes, improving skills forecasting, enabling better exchange and use of existing data and promoting systematic skills policy evaluation to support evidence-informed policy.

I provided an update to my Cabinet colleagues on the matter in January, and my officials are advancing plans to deliver the Observatory in the second half of this year.

Funding has been ringfenced from my Department’s allocation for the Observatory. It will build upon the Skills and Labour Market Unit in SOLAS, harnessing the Unit’s existing strengths and expertise.

It is my intention that a cross government and agency steering committee will oversee the establishment, and support the scoping of the Observatory.