Mr. Jim Miley:

The messages the Deputy got from business leaders in Cork and that we have also heard from business leaders across the country demonstrate that there is concern about the future talent pool. That is particularly the case as we are reaching peak employment. There are significant shortages of key talent in a wide range of areas in the economy.

Reference was made to rankings and research. This is related to the Deputy's previous question about overall priority. I will make two points. First, core funding is absolutely critical. An increase in State funding was a fundamental ingredient of all of the options outlined in the Cassells report which was published more than three years ago. I will hand over to my colleague in a moment as we conducted an exercise on that issue. It is included it in our budget submission and examines where we are versus what was outlined in the Cassells report. Increasing core funding is critical, but we are not suggesting we have to go anywhere near closing the €4,000 gap that has opened up in the last decade. A meaningful contribution does, however, have to be made towards doing that. What we have outlined refers to pushing that figure upwards in order that the €5,000 in direct funding per student that we receive from the State can, within a couple of years, become perhaps €5,500. That is relatively modest compared to the drop we have seen, but given the increase in numbers, we are conscious of what the State can afford.

The Deputy referenced research in both of his questions. That issue is also critical. It relates to parts 2 and 3 of our submission. We have proposed extra funding of €50 million for core frontier research. A significant number of our top researchers and scientists do not receive national funding. that inhibits their capacity to build teams and develop the ability to compete for other funds such as from the ERC fund which I mentioned. If that issue is not addressed, we will certainly fall further down the rankings over time. The second aspect of research relates to the capital investment programme, in particular the facilities that need to be upgraded such as laboratories and technical equipment. That is directly related to the research agenda. Therefore, the two absolute priorities are addressing the issues of core funding and research in the context of direct funding and the capital investment programme.

I ask Mr. Casey to comment further on the Cassells report.