Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy is aware, the Bill now has been published and I hope to be able to introduce it. Obviously, less than two weeks of Dáil time now remain but I intend to introduce the Bill. Some funding is available to help with the process of the different regions getting to the point of applying for the status of technological university. However, I must acknowledge this again is not the major factor in terms of the pressures on the higher education sector. The major factor really is it is the sector that constantly is in a competitive space with the rest of the world in the first instance. While might not agree with league tables, I am told they are things of which one must take some note. The other point concerns the growing demographics and the growing demand from the workplace for higher levels of educational attainment.

Whereas one previously could get a job with a primary degree, one now might need a higher qualification for the same job. The higher education sector is dealing constantly with all these pressures and obviously, the funding then becomes part of the issue with which it must deal when the Government has not been able to increase the sector's funding in any significant way in recent years.