Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 8 October 2020

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills

General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science

Photo of Simon HarrisSimon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the technological university for the south east, my Department and the Government as a whole are very committed to its delivery. As I stated when I briefed Oireachtas Members representing the south east this week on a cross-party basis, there is a significant body of work that needs to be done in the coming weeks and months. It is important to have a clear understanding of the key dates in the process. I am due to meet the presidents of the two institutions, the chairs of the governing authorities, Mr. Boland and his team this month. They are expected to present the project plan to me, laying out how they intend to get from here to the opening of the doors of a new university. I intend to bring that to the Government and publish it thereafter, probably in November. I will arrange for Oireachtas Members representing the south east to be briefed on the plan in advance of its publication. The plan will have a target date of the consortium submitting an application to me, as Minister, by next summer. If it does so by that date, the legislation states that I must appoint an independent review panel within four months. Mr. Boland would like to see the new university open its doors on 1 January 2022. There is many a slip between cup and lip. All of this is contingent on a significant body of work being undertaken by a wide variety of people at each stage.

They are the three dates. The project plan will be in October, application next summer and doors open 1 January 2022. That has to be the roadmap but there is a long way to get from each of those steps and we will be taking an active interest in that. The funding announced yesterday was an example of how we want to help facilitate that change management and the huge amount of work that needs to be done.

On the mental health funding, we have provided €5 million in additional funding, €2 million of which, in fairness, was announced in the last budget, with €3 million of it being new. That €5 million has been given out to each institution through the Higher Education Authority. I can get the committee a note on the breakdown for each institution. It is to do exactly as the Chairman said. Students tell me that the mental health services, when they can access them, are good. The issue is getting access to them. The idea is to increase the capacity and the number of student counsellors and specialists working in the sector.

On the issue of drug use, my view, coloured very much by my view as a former Minister for Health, is that there can be a significant link between drug use and mental health and well-being and I believe education is our most powerful tool to overcome that. A good deal of work needs to be done through our education system in third level, and not just third level, about the dangers of drug use, which needs to be led by students rather than us lecturing the students.

The Chairman referenced the fact that this committee will be holding hearings on bullying. While I am clear and very protective of the fact that this is a separate and distinct Department from the Department of education, I have no doubt there will be areas where there will be significant overlaps. The programme for Government commits to a Traveller education strategy. I have met Pavee Point. That has to include the work of the Department of education and my Department and, I believe, the Department of children, disability, equality and integration. Issues such as mental health, bullying, sex education and consent do not neatly fit in one Department and my Department and officials will be very willing to help this committee in its work on any of those issue.

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