Rose Conway-Walsh challenges plans to unlock National Training Fund
Rose Conway-Walsh spoke in the Dáil about proposals to unlock the National Training Fund and expressed serious concerns about how the money would be used. She called for fuller detail and consultation, caps on certain uses, and said the fund should prioritise lifelong learning and north‑south training links rather than plugging education deficits.
Concerns over fund use
- She warned that employers have paid into the National Training Fund and feel they have received little back, and questioned proposals that would allow the fund to be used for broad purposes such as land purchase or decarbonisation without clear caps.
Consultation with employer groups and unions
- She asked whether the department had consulted employer representative groups including IBEC and ISME, and said consultation with unions is also critical to ensure the fund meets business and workforce needs.
Worry about diverting funds to education deficits
- She highlighted a "306 million deficit in further and higher education" and said she did not want the National Training Fund to be used to plug those gaps; she called for a detailed assessment of allocations and a departmental briefing paper.
Priority for lifelong learning and inclusion
- She argued the fund should first be used for lifelong learning, including for people with disabilities, to protect competitiveness as AI and new technologies change the labour market and to address productivity gaps.
Support for technological universities and north-south initiatives
- She said technological universities should receive promised investment and suggested the fund could support north‑south apprenticeship collaboration under the shared island unit, enabling cross-border training arrangements.
Next steps and parliamentary position
- She said her party wants to work constructively with the department but reserves the right to table amendments and seeks further detail on caps, allocations and stakeholder engagement.
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I welcome the opportunity to talk about the National Training Fund because you will know, Minister, we have long wanted to unlock this fund. It is obviously, as was said, the fund that employers have paid into and that hard-pressed businesses have paid into and they feel that they have got very little back for the payments that have been made and seen the figures accumulate over the years. I have some concerns around it and what you are proposing and I think we need much further discussion on the detail of how this is going to be done. Maybe the first thing I would pose to you is around the consultation that has happened in relation to the unlocking and what it will mean. Particularly if there has been consultation with IBEC, with ISME, so the employers representative groups in terms of getting their opinions from it, because obviously they are dealing with hundreds of businesses and they will know what business is needed in terms of training. I am too concerned around are there any caps on the amounts of money that can be used in the different areas. So if we say for instance that it can be opened up to the purchase of land. You know yourself in terms of that can be infinite figures that would be locked in that way. So I again would like to see caps being in the areas if you are considering that. My overall concern is, we have the 306 million deficit in further and higher education and that is quite disgraceful and it really has not been addressed in any meaningful way and I do not want to see that the National Training Fund is going to be suddenly used to plug all of the gaps there. Now I absolutely recognise the need for investment there and particularly investment, there has not been the investment that was promised into the technological universities and I think they can be much better used in terms of supporting the very businesses that have paid into this fund as well. But when we talk again about decarbonisation, I mean we are told that carbon tax and all that has been used for decarbonisation and to meet our targets. Again I would be very concerned about the amount of money that can be eaten up in that space. One hundred percent there needs to be decarbonisation from all of the higher education institutes, but I cannot see again how it can be used from there or should be used indeed from the National Training Fund. I think that has to be an investment from the other funds, maybe the funds that are being set aside at the moment. Have you done like an assessment of the allocations of the monies and you know I just really need to see further detail there. So I mean if your department could even supply us with a further briefing paper on what that might be done, it could be helpful because as a party we do want to work with you, but we don't want to end up in a situation where this fund is gone. Our competitiveness that we talk about every day of the week is at a very critical point and the driver for our competitiveness or how we're going to ensure it into the future. An educated labour force is going to ensure that we remain competitive into the future and because we have so many changes in this space in terms of development of AI and technologies and everything else that companies are faced, I feel that we right across the island haven't had the emphasis that we have needed in lifelong learning. Lifelong learning for everybody but lifelong learning as well for people with disabilities and other people who need to be able to participate fully in the workforce and who need to be, I mean I'm watching our productivity rates as well in terms of how we address the gaps there to remain competitiveness, to competitive and I think the National Training Fund first and foremost should be used for that lifelong learning before it's used for anything else to ensure that we have all the gaps at rest there. I also want to see the National Training Fund being used for the north-south initiatives that can be used, the change of learning there, so under the shared island unit that we can have much better collaboration there where somebody may be able to do part of an apprenticeship in the north or south and vice versa. I think that brings all kinds of value with it. That's probably all I'll say about it at this point but as our spokesperson and further higher education deputy McGettigan said we reserve the right to make amendments to what you're proposing but we do want to work constructively with you but I really want to know about the depth of consultation that has taken place with the employer representative groups as well and indeed with the unions as well. I think that is critical because we have such an amount of money here to be able to deal constructively with. We want to ensure that the potential of it is maximised to Gourmine Malle.
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