Chairman:

I thank Mr. McCarthy. I ask Deputies to put together and review the documents. We will agree at a future meeting which ones we want clarification and further information on, and which ones are to be acted on, and we will send that back to the Department.

The next item of correspondence is one I am noting myself, No. 2658 from Mr. Alan Wall, chief executive of the Higher Education Authority, HEA, dated 19 December 2019. It provides information requested by the committee with regard to recurring deficits in third level institutions and the impact of cuts in funding for the third level institutions. As well as noting and publishing this item, I propose to include the HEA in our work programme to discuss this and related matters in the context of its latest financial statement.

Deputies will have seen the correspondence, No. 2658, from it. There are major issues with the 20% decrease in public funding between 2015 and 2018 while the number of students has increased by 30%. In recent weeks people in the sector have highlighted that they are facing major funding challenges. I propose we include the Higher Education Authority in our work programme to discuss all of this and related matters in the context of its financial statement. The numbers attending third level institutions have been increasing dramatically and will increase again this year, which is good. However, the funding issue needs to be addressed and cannot be ignored. Is it agreed that we include it in our work programme? Agreed.

The next item has been flagged by Deputy Carthy. No. 2660 is from Professor Phillip Nolan, president of NUI Maynooth, dated 20 December 2019 providing a response to matters raised with the committee. It is a detailed and comprehensive note on 12 matters. Deputy Carthy has suggested that we request from NUI Maynooth the potential cost to it if all relevant staff were to submit claims for the maximum period in the past and if the university will commit to put in place a process to automatically ensure staff receive their entitlements.