Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 28 Jan 1998

Vol. 486 No. 1

Written Answers. - Staff Training.

Conor Lenihan

Question:

182 Mr. C. Lenihan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the percentage of payroll which Irish indigenous firms devote to in-house training for their staff and employees; and how this compares with other European countries. [1741/98]

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Miss Harney):

I do not have information available on the specific basis requested by the Deputy.

On the basis of an EU survey, published in 1997 by the European Statistical Office entitled Continuing Vocational Training Survey in Enterprises: Results, the cost of training courses in enterprises in Ireland as a percentage of labour costs was 1.5 per cent of payroll. In the case of small firms, most of which were likely to be indigenous, the percentage fell to 1.2 per cent of payroll.

In some sectors, the percentage was significantly less than in others. For example, the figure was 1 per cent or less in the construction, retail and hotels-restaurants sectors, whereas the percentage was over 2 per cent in sectors such as engineering and banking. The comparative positionvis-à-vis other EU countries is set out in the following table.

It should be noted that this survey relied, in Ireland's case, on information which was obtained some time previously. It should also be noted that no distinction was made between enterprises on the basis of their ownership, or between external and in-house training — the cost of the latter being extremely difficult to calculate.

Table 1. Cost of training courses as a percentage of payroll in EU states.

States	Percentage
United Kingdom	2.7
France	2.0
Netherlands	1.8
Ireland	1.5
Belgium	1.4
Denmark	1.3
Luxembourg	1.3
Germany	1.2
Greece	1.1
Spain	1.0
Italy	0.8
Portugal	0.7
EU Average	1.6

Conor Lenihan

Question:

183 Mr. C. Lenihan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the plans, if any, she has to alter the Redundancy Acts so that a mandatory training component can be included as part of redundancy packages. [1742/98]

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Miss Harney):

The purpose of the Redundancy Payments Acts is to provide compensation to workers who have been made redundant. It is not proposed to alter the terms to these Acts.

However, under the Protection of Employment Act, 1977 the employer is obliged to consult with workers when he is contemplating collective redundancies. These consultations include such matters as "the possibility of avoiding the proposed redundancies, reducing the number of employees affected by them or mitigating their circumstances by recourse to accompanying social measures aimed, inter alia, at aid for redeploying or retraining employees made redundant”.