Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is an important issue in relation to Covid. I do not know whether it is a good or a bad thing that the Minister with responsibility for further and higher education was a Minister for Health but I can assure students and staff that I will take a very cautious approach to the issue of on-site attendance in the interests of people’s health. I have met the unions and will be meeting them again tomorrow. I have met the leaders of the higher education institutions. I meet the Union of Students in Ireland, USI, on a regular basis. Health has to come first, second and third in this regard and then next, and very quickly, has to be the quality of the education. I am very encouraged by the Quality and Qualifications Ireland, QQI, report that showed that despite the extraordinary emergency situation in which staff had to work and students had to learn, the quality of education attainment held up. I am also conscious that the longer that goes on, the more challenging it becomes.

I will give just two quick answers that are important. At the moment, we are in the middle of a three-week period whereby the then acting Chief Medical Officer asked us to put extra precaution measures in place. We are due to review that in the next few days and to work with education partners to decide what the rest of the semester looks like. The second issue, a very valid one, is on connectivity. I have a meeting this afternoon with HEAnet on how we can improve connectivity. We have good connectivity on-site. Is there a way of getting some of that off-site? Some of it might be funding through the student access fund; some of it might be more ambitious. Is it possible - I do not yet know the answer to this - to create community learning hubs where people can learn in their community and have good access there if they cannot get on-site? I will be asking or instructing, whichever is appropriate, higher education institutions to use common sense in terms of not wanting people to travel but of them not losing out. I do not think they need to be instructed because they are showing leadership on this.