2025-12-11

208. Deputy Barry Heneghan asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if he will outline current and planned measures to expand apprenticeship and trade-focused education opportunities in north Dublin given the significant demand for skilled workers Ireland will face through major housing delivery targets and offshore renewable energy developments over the next decade; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [67806/25]

I, too, wish the Athenry camogie team the best of luck. We need to change the public perception of trades. I am aware that Jim Hargis, at the education and training hub in St. Andrew's Resource Centre, Dublin, is playing a key role in designing and running community-focused education. For the construction industry, the skills programme and the future of our offshore renewable energy, we need more trades and skilled workers. We need to change the public perception to show this is a very good option for people to go into.

I agree with the Deputy about Jim Hargis and the excellent work he is doing at St. Andrew's Resource Centre. I have been there twice. If anybody wants to see how to help to get young men and women into different sectors through traineeships and apprenticeships in a supportive and inclusive way, they need to look at what is happening there. It is an excellent example. I commend the Deputy on mentioning it. The question is about expanding apprenticeships and trade-focused education. He specifically mentioned north Dublin. To meet our ambitious housing delivery targets and offshore renewable energy developments over the next decade will require a skilled workforce. Apprenticeships are central to supporting these demands in supplying skilled workers for housing developments, construction and the renewable energy sectors. The programme for Government sets an ambitious target of 12,500 annual apprentice registrations by 2030, with two thirds of those in craft and construction. This reflects the vital role construction plays in infrastructure and economic growth. Significant investment underpins this commitment. Budget 2026 saw €79 million allocated to apprenticeship delivery nationally. In addition, my Department recently announced a further €20.5 million capital investment to expand training capacity in higher education institutions, including 39 additional training blocks in TU Dublin. Alongside this investment, my Department's Careers in Construction: Action Plan, launched in 2023, aims to make construction careers more accessible and attractive. That is what the Deputy is speaking about. These efforts are delivering results. We see that craft apprenticeships increased by 63% from 2020 to 2024 and construction-related apprenticeships grew by 50% from 2020 to 2025.

I am glad the Minister of State has visited the training board at St. Andrew's in Dublin. Having gone through the points race in the leaving certificate, apprenticeships were never really an option and were not discussed among my peers because we were not shown and educated about the trades route. I now see a lot of people going into it when they move abroad, or if they come up, but they need to be shown more. We need to do more advertising to show people because with the development of housing or offshore renewable energy, we will need these skilled workers. It would be much better if we had a native workforce that could be here to continue with any infrastructure project we have. We have a lot of projects to do. On these skilled workers, it is important to mention that the system bottlenecks are holding the workforce back. I recently saw that some apprenticeship pathways can be designed to take 228 weeks, yet the mandatory eligibility period means apprenticeships at each phase take far longer than intended. That is something we need to look into. If the time is longer, it will deter people from apprenticeships.

Again, I agree with the Deputy. We are making real efforts to try to ensure that apprenticeships are seen as plan A, not plan B or C. They are not something students get involved in if something else does not work out. They are real, meaningful pathways and opportunities to employment. The Department is very actively involved in a number of programmes to highlight and showcase the attractiveness of apprenticeships. For example, one programme, Facts, Faces, Futures, uses female role models, specifically, to highlight the benefit aspects of apprenticeships. That is run by the national apprenticeship office. We have a large social media campaign, Building Heroes, which takes what is called a peer-to-peer approach to dispel some of the myths surrounding apprenticeships. I have met many of the young people involved in this. It is a really positive programme to show that apprenticeships are for everybody.

It is great to see that. I welcome the engagement the Minister of State has had with me so far. Especially for my constituency, and from speaking to young adults, it would be great if we could continue to see the investment she mentioned into more apprenticeship programmes. There are a lot of derelict sites in north Dublin that could be upgraded and used as an apprenticeship college. There are ones we could invest in. We need to show, north Dublin especially, that there are other options for these kids and future adults, as the Minister of State said, and that this is not a plan B or C. It should be considered a plan A. I welcome what she said about social media. We need to continue actively promoting apprenticeships as first-choice career routes. Centres such as St. Andrew's, as the Minister of State mentioned, demonstrate that when training is practical, supportive and connected it helps people succeed in their career going forward. I welcome its inclusive model. I hope it can be used as a blueprint across the country.

The Deputy and I are both in agreement. We recognise the need to increase the number of apprentices. Sometimes, we have to change people's minds before we do anything else. Certainly, a lot the programmes the Department is progressing are attempting to do that. I mentioned the Facts, Faces, Futures and Building Heroes programmes. We also have the Build Back Home programme, which is an international programme aimed at skilled Irish construction workers living abroad to try to entice them back, specifically from Canada and Australia. The Department is making real efforts to, first of all, entice workers back to Ireland but, equally, to get more and more students to take the apprenticeship pathway. One of the ways we are trying to do that is through modern methods of construction, MMC. We have a Skillnet MMC Accelerate platform, launched in May this year, which highlights MMC projects and how students can avail of what is available.