CONCERNS have been raised regarding the sanctioning of staff for a new state-of-the-art apprenticeship training facility currently under development in Letterkenny.
The facility, a collaboration between ATU and the Donegal Education and Training Board (ETB), is due to open later this year in an existing building on the Port Road.
However, this is pending sanction from the Department of Education and Youth for an instructor, a recent meeting of the ETB board has heard.
The response followed a query from Cllr Ciaran Brogan, who asked for a progress update on the project after the meeting was told that apprenticeships in Donegal continued to grow in 2025 and were expected to grow further in the year ahead.
Ciaran O’Brien, Director of Further Education and Training (FET), explained that the application was submitted last October.
“And it is just sitting there,” he said.
He went on to describe the department as a “black hole”.
“We understand that nationally sanction requests for new staff that go into the Department of Education and Youth aren’t coming back out again at the minute.”
For staff sanction requests, the application is sent to Solas and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS).
However, because this is a new post, it also went to the Department of Education and Youth, where progress has stalled.
Mr O’Brien said this is a challenge not just within apprenticeships but across the entire ETB sector.
He said they hope to move in by the second half of 2026, but sanctioning of staff is vital or they cannot progress. He added that other elements of the project, such as leasing the building and procuring equipment for the workshops, have been straightforward.
