569. Deputy Maeve O'Connell asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the number of apprentices registered to the construction sector in 2025. [22085/26]

With thanks to Deputy O’Connell for her interest in my Department’s work in the development of the national apprenticeship system, I can inform her that the number of new apprenticeship registrations in construction and construction-related fields for the full year 2025 was 6,428. This represents a growth rate of 69% since 2020.

I can add that the number of new craft apprenticeship registrations overall in 2025 was 7,147, which represents a growth of 78% on 2020.

This year will see the launch of the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2026-2030, which recently completed an extensive public consultation phase. A key commitment in the Programme for Government, it will have a headline target of 12,500 new apprentice registrations per year by 2030 and two-thirds of these will be in craft and construction-related programmes.