Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 July 2022
1445. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science further to Parliamentary Question Nos. 631 and 632 of 14 July 2022, the expenditure each of the travel and accommodation allowances for apprentices in 2019, 2020, and 2021 [40298/22]
View answerThe Education Shared Business Service (ESBS) which operates under the remit of the Department of Education act as a paying agent on behalf of Education and Training boards ETBs and accordingly, Apprentices are paid training allowances via the PeopleXD system by ESBS while they undertake off-the-job training.
All Apprentices are registered by ETBs on the SOLAS ACSS Apprenticeship system and this information is subsequently posted to the PeopleXD system for payment purposes.
As the Deputy is aware, ESBS took over the payment of Apprentices in Mar 2020 via the PeopleXD system. Prior to that, Apprentices were paid from the FAS TAPS legacy system.
Regarding the Deputy’s question on the expenditure of each of the travel and accommodation allowances for apprentices in 2019, 2020, and 2021, the only full year figures available are from 2021 in which the total amount paid in craft allowances was €66.865m and due to the pandemic and the associated shutdown of educational and training facilities, these figures are not an accurate reflection of allowances paid to apprentices.
A breakdown of the travel and accommodation allowances for apprentices has been requested from SOLAS for the period prior to ESBS taking over the payments. It will be sent onto the Deputy as soon as it is available.
