Mr. Ned Costello:

I am conscious that we are under time pressure. A specific question was asked about the National Training Fund, NTF, and where the money goes. I am happy to provide the committee with full details. The total income of the NTF for 2016 was €395 million, with total expenditure at €362 million. Of that, the only component that goes anywhere close to higher education is the Springboard initiative, which accounted for €27 million of that €362 million in expenditure.

A question was asked about whether we could do anything to improve the rankings without spending money immediately. One significant characteristic of the rankings is that sentiment is a major factor, specifically reputational surveys. If there was even a sense that we had a clear national direction towards sustainability of the system, it would improve sentiment and that would materially impact on the rankings. Deputy Cannon mentioned autonomy and this goes back to how we are very constrained in how we manage our human resources within universities. That also feeds into the rankings as there are employer and academic sentiment surveys. When foreign academics see the strictures we are operating under relative to what they may experience in other systems, it also has an impact on sentiment. There are things we can do without spending money.