Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 October 2021
255. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if he will confirm that €22 million has been allocated from Budget 2022 for Green Skills Action Programmes; the breakdown of expenditure under this initiative; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51845/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs part of Budget 2022, €22 million is being provided for the Green Skills Action programme. This programme focuses on providing training to address climate and low carbon economy issues and is being funded under the SOLAS Recovery Skills Response Programme under Ireland’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan.
The Programme includes a focus on provision in Near Zero Energy Building (NZEB) and Retrofitting as well as the development of new modules in green skills. €17m of the Budget provision relates to the Retrofit and NZEB expansion and will provide for an additional 2,650 places, bringing the total number of places to 4,550 by the end of 2022. NZEB and retrofit programmes are provided in Waterford Wexford ETB, Laois Offaly ETB and Mount Lucas National Construction Training Centre with work ongoing to establish a further three centres of excellence in Cork, Limerick Clare and Mayo Sligo Leitrim ETBs.
The remaining €5m is for the provision of green skills modules being made available to all FET learners with Green Skills Trainers identified as part of this approach. The overall Programme target is for 60,000 learners to be offered green skills modules.
