Brendan Smith Welcomes €4.55bn Boost for Further Education

Minister, I very much welcome the substantial provision you secured in the National Development Plan towards developments, capital developments across the father education sector, and thankfully there has been a welcome emphasis over recent years on the development of the father education sector. You might be able to outline to me some of the projects that will be progressed and will benefit from the funding available to your department in 2026 in relation to capital developments. Thank you, Alaska and Corley. As part of the National Development Plan review, which was conducted last summer, I have secured from my department a capital allocation of €4.55 billion over the next four years, 2026 to 2030, and that's very significant, that's the largest, I think it's almost double what it was previously, it's the largest in the history of the department, and it's aligned to the capital envelope of the NDP overall, and part of that is because the department's activities are so aligned with all our government missions, be there our infrastructure needs, to roll out the housing needs for our people, be there to roll out the metro, the transit, the grid upgrades, the water upgrades, my department will train the tradesmen to do those jobs, in terms of the apprenticeship paths and programmes, and all the skilling that goes with it, in terms of the digital agenda, in terms of rolling out digital skills, we're in an AI age, we're entering one, in terms of the energy revolution, that the offshore wind, and all the opportunities that come with that, needs, that we're scaling up nine different occupations, to provide more courses in those areas, additionally to that, the research and innovation, aspect of my department, has received significant funding, I launched for Christmas, 750 million euro, Inspire, research framework programme, which I think is fundamental to our knowledge economy, and the ideas that we generate, and how we can succeed, and innovate, and remain competitive, in a very robust, and very changing world, so I think these are all, really significant, capital projects, have published, the sectoral plan, my department, which gives a detailed breakdown, and one project, that may be of interest yourself, Deputy, is the College of the Future, in Cavan, and I know I visited, I want to thank you again, for the invitation, to visit, Cavan Institute, recently, I stay by the top, with pride, I was playing with sporting jersey, which I wear my runs, every week, but the Cavan Institute, is very much one of those projects, and I look forward, to seeing that progress, over the time ahead, and I can match that, in that supplementary, Deputy Smith, I thank the Minister, for his response, and Minister, just with regard to Deputy Ward's, concluding remarks there, I very, very much, and I look forward, to seeing that progress, over the time ahead, and I can match that, in that supplementary, Deputy Smith, I thank the Minister for his response, and Minister, just with regard to Deputy Ward's concluding remarks there, I very much welcome, the fact that you, the first Minister, was able to announce, an All-Ireland University, where you have worked, very assiduously, along with, Dundalk Institute of Technology, and Queen's University, to have, Dundalk Institute, as a College, of Queen's University, first All-Ireland University, we will have, that's practical, doing practical things, I very much welcome, that, Minister again, and I very much welcome, as did, the Board of Management, and the staff, and students, in Cavan College, Cavan Institute, you are, your, your recent, visit, as Councillor Clifford Kelly, the Chairperson, of the Board, indicated, that day, a number of us, have worked, over the years, to develop, that College, we've seen, it grow, from, from being, an extra class, literally, at second level, in Breftonley College, to being, a very, very substantial, provider, of further education, today, one of the largest, colleges, in the country, we need, additional accommodation, as you saw, yourself, at first hand, so I sincerely, hope, that you're, officials, working, with Cavan, on an ETB, and with Cavan Institute, will be able, to progress, the particular College, of the future, onto the next stage, so that, we can, advance, towards, construction. Minister. No, absolutely, Deputy, and just, to pick up, on the remarks, with the Queen's, and DKIT, I had a meeting, again, on that, just as recently, yesterday, I'm really excited, about that, and go back, to the wider discussion, and, of course, these questions, I would, do everything, in the program for government, as far, to the best of my ability, but I would, do other things, so the Queen's, in Dundalk, merger, wasn't in the program for government, I'm doing it, anyway, I think, something, that's really, important, really excited, about it, I think, it's huge, the All-Illand, I mentioned to it, I know, you're a huge supporter of it, Deputy, as well, and Deputy McGreen, as well, and we had, we had a function, yesterday, again, in connection, with it, so, that's progressing, that's a really, important milestone, in terms of funding, and capital, for the Cavan area, and the Cavan Institute, received, with the relocation, with the armory barracks, and 5.3 million, funding, in 2023, at the Centre of Excellence, for Supply Chain and Logistics, was completed, September 24, 207,000, there was a, there's minor capital rocks, application, the pipeline, at the moment, in Cavan Town, as well as, of course, the electrical works, roof works, and other ongoing works, emergency works, there, the College of the Future campus, on the, on the Cathedral Road, is progressing, and I'm glad to be able to inform you, Deputy, in the House, that it was successful in progressing to the next stage of development, so it currently is a pre-tender project, as I am planning on the procurement, at the supply stage, and I very much hope to be in a position to update you in the House, on further updates, and progress on that, in the near future. Deputy Smith. Thank you very much, and I thank the Minister for his response, and I know of his personal commitment, to the, to the project, as well, and as I assured you, previously, both at committee, at the Oireachtas Committee, and in meetings, as well, you can be assured, that when the project, gets to tender stage, it would be advanced, as quickly as possible, by the promoter, the Cav Monaghan, ETB. Minister, again, we have the opportunity, to, to work in conjunction, with Monaghan Institute, and also, with the South West College, in Enniskillen, and again, it's, it's been practical, as you have advocated, and I have strongly advocated, over many years, and thankfully, we're in a position today, with the political initiatives, since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, to have that greater collaboration, across different aspects, of society. We have seen the all-Ireland economy grow, I think we, we believe, we need now, to upskill our people, provide skills, and training, on an all-Ireland basis, as well. Earlier today, at the Oireachtas Committee, on Father and Higher Education, we, we had representatives from IDA, Enterprise Ireland, and Skillnet, talking about the whole skills shortages, and thankfully, today, we're talking about skills shortages in Ireland, when in the past, unfortunately, we hadn't employment opportunities. So, I believe, there's a great opportunity at Ascancorla, to, to utilise, the potential of the father education sector, to contribute, to training, and upskilling people, for very worthwhile employment. Thank you, at Ascancorla. Thank you very much, Mr. Smith. Absolutely. So, there is a real skill shortage, and I suppose it is a way, again, it's a factor of success, because we are at almost full employment, and the economy, and my department recently produced a report, a Labour Force modeling report, which looked at our construction skills needs, and working closely with Minister of State, Harkin, on the development of that report, and that shows that we need to continue to grow our pool of skilled tradespeople, our craft trades, right across the board, all the skills that we need to build a big infrastructure projects that we aspire to develop over the course of this term, and which are funded through the National Development Plan. So, almost for the first time, we actually have funding, and what we need is to make sure we have the labour force and skills to deliver, and how we do, and there's a number of ways we can do that, primarily through skilling and training our people, and also things like modern methods of construction can be embraced through all that out, which actually, as well as being more productive, also brings the employment opportunities to a more regional level, because you can have factories developing modern methods of construction in a regional rural location, which are then shipped off to a building site up in the big town or big city, without the worker having to actually go to commute every day, so, and bringing people, addressing gender balance in the workforce and things like that, as well, because it may suit women with caring responsibilities and people with disabilities to work in a site like that, where they may not be able to travel to a construction site, so I think it's beneficial for many reasons, I think we'll continue to progress. Yes, I believe.