Ms Ann Campbell:

I am president of Dundalk Institute of Technology and it is one of the institutes with sustainability challenges. I was not aware that we had given computers to primary schools so we may go back for them in the morning. When we came to the end of our cashflow, as we did this time last year, we entered into a financial plan with the HEA. We have already told members of all the cuts we have had but, because we got to the end of our reserves and started to face cashflow problems, we had to introduce a financial plan with a further €638,000 in pay savings which meant that, despite already being short of staff, we could not replace retiring staff. Moving staff around is the only flexibility we have. Having contracts means redundancy does not apply so we can decide not to replace retiring staff or those who leave voluntarily. We had to make savings of another almost €600,000 on the non-pay side so members can imagine what that means in the context of already tight budgets.

We have to try to generate additional income and fortunately we have been very successful in attracting international students. We have also been successful in getting research funding but we are working on a very tight rope. The difficulties arise in the area of investment in necessary facilities. We produce students who are work-ready when they leave. They do their projects and also do internships so they can hit the ground running when they leave. The equipment and facilities in our laboratories are not up to scratch, however, and the students go into industry with that handicap.