Professor Willie Donnelly:

Unfortunately, I get the prize for the largest deficit this year. I am also the new person on the block so when I became president of Waterford Institute of Technology I was absolutely shocked at the business model it used for third level education. I come from industry but no industry would manage with the same model. Since 2008 we have taken a cut of €14.5 million per year, a total of €85 million. We do the same job we did before but we have had to pay all increments that were reintroduced for our staff with no increase from the education budget. Our staff profile is different from other institutes and it is this that has created our problem. All our staff are at the mature end of the scale, because we are one of the longest-established institutes, and as a result our increments are higher. We have been one of the most successful institutes in research, to which I will return later, but our research, which is seriously underfunded, is subsidising activities in the other part of the institute.

On the question of access and inclusion, the majority of our students do not come from the CAO but other routes and we are very proud of this. Many of those students, however, have very serious psychological problems and we have to deal with this. We have the highest percentage of students with mental and other problems but we deal with them and have established structures to do so. It is really gratifying to see those students achieving but when I sat down with them, I learned that the majority were not referred to a psychiatrist because the health system did not have the funding to support them. We have to support them. Below the calm waters of education are all the areas where there is huge pressure on our sector so it is extraordinary to see what the sector achieves for these students.

The deficit is much more complex than it appears but €14.5 million has been taken from the budget per year, totalling €85 million, since 2008 and yet we do the same job with the same number of staff. Those staff are entitled to increments and we have students from a wide range of social backgrounds so the impact of the downturn is coming to our door. We have carried on for a very long time and commitment to our community has always been at the forefront of what we do but the deficit is a very serious issue and is not sustainable. If this was a business I would say it was not sustainable without a new model, and that is what we need. We need a new business model that recognises the work we are doing and the infrastructure that is needed to deliver the type of graduate that will sustain the economic development of this country.