Business group ISME has called on the Government to release available funding under the National Training Fund (NFT), to improve workplace skills for employees.
The NTF is paid for by employers through a 1% Employer's PRSI levy, which was formalised under the National Training Fund Act, 2000.
The Act sets out in law that the fund must be spent exclusively to raise the skills of those in employment, provide training to those who wish to acquire skills for the purposes of taking up employment, or provide information in relation to existing, or likely future, requirements for skills in the economy.
Despite the NTF having a surplus of €1.3 billion, ISME said its training budget under the fund was reduced in 2024.
"We hope not only to have an expanded training budget for 2025, but we need to clear training backlogs from 2024 due to lack of funding," said Adam Weatherley, ISME's Learning & Development Manager.
"If training budgets under the NTF are not substantially increased in 2025, it is neither acceptable nor tenable for the Exchequer to continue to collect the training levy.
"ISME will seek the suspension of the training levy for a minimum of five years, to allow the NTF surplus to reduce in size," he added.
