Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I accept that. I have a final two questions. One is for the Minister of State, Deputy Breen, on the LEOs. I was disappointed to see there was no increase in funding for the LEOs in the context of Brexit. Some of the LEOs I have engaged with on Brexit are very impressive. They are offering good literature, conducting courses and are active in reaching out to the local business communities. I have been very impressed by them. However, some are doing very little. The LEOs are surely a great distribution network for Brexit training, responsiveness and information. Why was there no increase in the budget? I would have expected to see one in the context of Brexit. The second issue is the effectiveness of the spend. Why are we seeing such a wide variety of quality in terms of output from the LEOs? I would have expected to see more consistency.

My second question is for the Minister of State, Deputy Halligan. In terms of the effectiveness of innovation spend, whenever I meet the heads of our colleges and universities I always ask them if they have the degrees of freedom they need to get the best out of the money that the Government gives them. Not one of them has ever answered "Yes". They make the point that over the last seven years the universities and the colleges have lost autonomy. They have less control than they used to have. They also make the point that in the area of science they have moved - forgive me, but my figures will be slightly wrong - from approximately 50% or more of their funding coming from the Government to about one third. They have had to diversify due to Government cuts. However, at a time when they are getting less money than ever from the Government, they do not have the same control. Is there any review of whether our third level institutions, which are spending this money, have the management freedoms they need to do the best job?