Electric.ie Nov Dec 2020

58 ELECTRIC.IE • The Magazine & Website for the Irish Electrical Industry • Industry News New Skills package as part of Budget 2021 M inister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris TD has recently announced details of €118 million Skills package as part of Budget 2021. • 50,000 places for upskilling and reskilling opportunities – an increase of 10,000 places; • Expansion of retrofitting skills programmes to support the national retrofitting programme; • A new climate action upskilling scheme for businesses; • 1,000 apprentices taken on through the Apprenticeship Incentivisation Scheme and extension for the first half of 2021. Minister Harris said: "Covid-19 has upended all our lives. While the challenges the crisis presented are unprecedented, they also open up unique opportunities for us. In this week’s Budget, we secured a package of €118 million to help thousands of you reskill and retrain in areas where we need more workers or where there is potential for future employment. One area we will focus on is the area of apprenticeship. To date, over 630 companies have applied for payments supporting the recruitment of over 1,100 apprentices. Budget 2021 allows us to extend the incentive payment to mid-2021, which will be a significant boost to businesses. We have also secured funding to expand training courses in retrofit skills to 1,500 people per annum. We will extend programmes to include 500 places for people in search of employment in this developing area as well as providing more places for people in the construction sector. We will also develop five centres of excellence in Waterford-Wexford, Cork, Limerick-Clare, Mayo-Sligo and Leitrim, and Laois-Offaly Education and Training Boards (ETBs), with potential for additional Dublin and Galway facilities. 2020 has been an incredibly difficult year for businesses and people with us all having to adapt to new ways of working. We will also roll out a new climate action upskilling scheme through Skillnet Ireland. Skillnet programmes are industry led. Courses will be designed by industry, for industry and will give businesses the skills to adapt to a sustainable, low carbon economy" €3.1 Billion Housing Budget Announced Darragh O’Brien TD. Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage has detailed the €3.1 billion housing budget for his Department in 2021. This represents an increase in available funding of over €730 million when compared to Budget 2020. Key areas of spending include social housing delivery, affordability measures, homelessness provisions and rental measures. A significant sum of €1.4 billion has also been announced for investment in water services. The main points are: • Single biggest spend on housing by any Government. • Largest build programme in the history of the State. • €1.4 billion investment in water services. Commenting Minister O’Brien said, "Housing for All’ means just that. As a Government we believe that everybody should have access to good-quality homes to purchase or rent at an affordable price. This Budget means that delivery on that commitment will start today. Budget 2021 has provided the resources needed by my Department, Local Authorities and Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) to get started on what will be the biggest social housing build programme in the history of the State. Next year we will build 9,500 social homes as part of an overall delivery of 12,750 social homes. These 9,500 homes represent a 22% increase on 2020 targets of 7,736. This is an ambitious target but it is one I intend to deliver on. This budget also provides for a suite of affordability measures totaling €468 million. This will be spread out across our Serviced Sites Fund, Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund, the Rebuilding Ireland Home Loan and the Land Development Agency (LDA). Importantly, €110 million of this will be provided to deliver a new national Affordable Purchase Shared Equity Scheme for first time buyers and a new funding model to accelerate the delivery of cost rental homes through the AHB sector".