Dr. Patrick Prendergast:

One of the rankings that is interesting, although it is not actually a ranking, is an OECD report that clearly states that we are in the bottom of the league when it comes to funding per student into higher education. It is welcome that the Cassells report has laid out ways that higher education can be funded as a mixture, as Professor Barry has said, of public and private funding to increase the funding into higher education. We have a lot of young people. Approximately 25% more young people will be coming into higher education by 2028. We need to invest in our higher education system if they are to have the quality education and the qualifications to get the jobs that are created by foreign direct investment. It is as if we have the young people on one side, the FDI on the other and in the middle are the universities. It is the universities that can transform the young people into those who can get jobs in the industry. In an under-funded system we will not generate the young people with the talent to get those jobs.

I welcome the point that both Brexit and the results of the election in the United States have put the emphasis very much back on talent and the importance of Ireland investing in our higher education system, which generates the talent that can compete with the best in the world.

We also need to have capital funding into our system to create the capacity to educate these greater numbers of young people. That cannot be done overnight. It takes five to ten years to build it. That is why we need to begin to invest now to create the capability to deliver that high quality education for our young people. Of all the questions asked, that is the issue I would most like to emphasise. It is important that we act now and not kick the can down the road. I hope the emphasis we are putting on the Cassells report in this committee shows that it is beyond time for us to begin thinking about how to implement some of the options put forward in the Cassells report.