2026-07-02

90. Deputy Grace Boland asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the number of training and education places available across further and higher education, apprenticeships and upskilling programmes aimed at developing the workforce required to deliver energy-efficient homes, including retrofitting, construction and related trades; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50102/26]

117. Deputy Grace Boland asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the measures being taken or planned by his Department to increase the number of training places and pathways for individuals to gain the skills necessary to deliver energy-efficient homes, including in areas such as retrofitting, heat pump installation and sustainable construction; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50101/26]

We know we have environmental targets. We know we want families to live in warm, fully insulated homes. That has never been more important, when we look at the geopolitical climate we are living in. However, there are real concerns as to whether we have the workforce to deliver warm, insulated homes - both new builds and retrofittings. How many do we currently have in training in the industry? What steps is the Minister taking to increase that to make sure that we not only meet our climate targets but help families to live in warm, insulated homes?

I propose to take Questions Nos. 90 and 117 together. The Deputy is absolutely right that this is a really important area of focus. I mentioned earlier the broader need for construction skills across every sector to meet the ambitions the Government has set out in terms of infrastructure delivery, be that transport, the metro project or DART+ - I know the Deputy’s constituency is in line for some benefits from the public transport programmes - the housing needs we have, which are central to the Government's ambition, and the retrofit and green energy revolution that is at our fingertips. In the energy space, that includes a commitment of €10 billion to enhance the grid capacity, because we need to be able to transit the energy as well as generate it, the workforce and the talent to do that - everything from retrofitting to green energy technicians and renewable energy engineers. I was in Munster Technological University, MTU, in Tralee recently and visited the centre where offshore wind turbine mechanics are being trained up on a new course there. We also have a centre for maritime skills in National Maritime College of Ireland, NMCI, in Cork. Right around the country we see similar types of courses being created. We also have the nearly zero energy building, NZEB, and retrofitting specialty. We have a couple of NZEB centres of excellence operated by Tipperary ETB, Kildare and Wicklow ETB and Cavan and Monaghan ETB. These are creating centres of excellence for these NZEBs and the idea is that they can then have specialist training provided in areas like plumbing, electrical, heat pump installation, site supervision, renewable energy installations and so on. In some cases we have courses available for people who are already in construction or already have a qualification or familiarity in order to allow them to reskill very quickly, sometimes as quickly as three or four days. In other courses we have full apprenticeships and full programmes over a number of years to deliver those. More broadly, and this is something I think there is great potential to do more on, we are also promoting modern methods of construction, MMC, so we can embrace 2D or 3D models where they are either partially assembled off site and then brought to the location or almost fully assembled and the finished kit is brought into place. If we can fully embrace MMC, we will have a potential 40% dividend in productivity, which means we can do more with less. That will enable us to more quickly and efficiently meet many of our needs in that area. There is a great opportunity there. Mount Lucas in County Offaly is a demonstration site I have visited a number of times with Deputy McCormack and others. That is a really good example but we have others. Wexford County Council had a project under way as well and 12 homes are being built out using MMC. There are a number of ways we can do this. We are also implementing an action plan, which I launched last year, that contains 58 actions coming from the expert group on future skills needs. They are looking at the wide-scale adoption of MMC and how we can enhance this more and provide more training and more skills to ultimately deliver on the ambitions we all share.

It is good to hear that work is under way. What I did not hear is whether we know the numbers we need to get to. As the Minister said, a broad range of skill sets are required to deliver these homes. Is there co-ordination between the Minister's Department and the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment? We know the targets we want to get to for 2030. Do we know the numbers of skilled workers we will need across the broad range to get there? Is the Department supporting that to ensure that there are sufficient programmes to deliver the numbers of skilled workers? I just did not hear that in the answer. It is really important that we have co-ordination. The Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment has substantial money, which should be used to support having a skilled workforce in place.

If there is substantial money there, the Deputy can point me to it because it is all accounted for in my budget. It would be great if I did have more money but that will be something for the Estimates process when we go through that. In terms of the numbers that are required, a recent independent report I commissioned from Indecon, which I brought to Cabinet, looked at our future construction workforce needs. It found that we have a shortage of skilled workers projected over the next ten years if we play out all of our national missions such as the infrastructure and public transport projects, the grid renewal and meeting the housing demand. My Department and the agencies will absolutely ramp up output to the maximum possible while preserving quality in the systems, and will examine a number of ways that we might be able to do that, one of which is by using modern methods of construction but there may be other methods we can utilise as well. Ultimately, as a society we have to examine whether there will be an enduring gap. Skills migration is going to be part of that solution. Value-added migration is something we will have to be alive to, particularly when workforce needs cannot be met domestically alone. There are other areas we have to look at to help fill those gaps but first and foremost the priority would be producing the skills, the talent and the educated workers through our training agencies, universities and apprenticeship systems. As has been mentioned, we will have to reskill many workers. There are many people with particular skills who are already in working in construction and who, with a light enhancement to their qualifications such as the three- or four-day courses that are already available in places like Mount Lucas and elsewhere, can actually skill up and get to the stage where they are proficient in emerging technologies and moving with it. As I said in response to an earlier question, change continues to come at us. We need to embrace and anticipate change and move ahead of it. That is exactly what we are doing in this area with the likes of those green energy courses, renewables and the wind turbine maintenance course that is provided now in Tralee, and many others, which are fundamental to fulfilling that training need.

I thank the Minister. This is a point I made to the Secretary General of the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment at the public accounts committee. There is money there and we absolutely need to invest in ensuring that we have retrofitting, and do everything we can to meet our climate targets, not just because of the financial consequences that might arise but because it is the right thing to do. We want people and families to be living in warm and fully insulated buildings. I would like to see the Minister's Department co-ordinate with the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment, and with his colleague the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to make sure we are doing everything we can to make sure we have the skilled workforce to meet our climate targets and deliver for families. The Minister, Deputy Lawless, has alluded to the awareness at second level of the importance of these various apprenticeship programmes and trades. We really need to be doing everything we can to encourage people into the sector. I would like to see the Minister continue to do his work in that space.

I can absolutely assure the Deputy that I am doing all I can in that space. We have a number of courses in plumbing, electrical, heat pump installation, site supervision, offshore wind turbine maintenance and many others. There is also the adoption more widely of MMC. Specialist and technical skills are very important but other skills are equally important. The plans we have adopted to date aim to promote skills transferability and include transversal skills. This is something that has emerged from the skills round tables I have been holding with sectors, including the construction sector, very recently. It is coming through from all sectors that while it is desirable to have a technical ability in particular areas, it is even more desirable to have the ability to have portable or flexible skills, leadership or communication skills, teamwork abilities and many skills that transcend one discipline and are multidisciplinary. We have a wider project to ensure that all those kinds of competencies are instilled in all courses, regardless of the discipline undertaken. At the heart of this, and at the heart of the Deputy's question on the courses under the green skills agenda, is making sure that the workforce is equipped to deliver the retrofit programmes and the next generation of energy efficient homes, and of course to take the full opportunity that renewable energy presents to us here in Ireland.