Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and the Minister of State. They are frequent visitors to the committee. I listened to the Minister's exchange earlier with Senator Byrne and I wish to get his thoughts on one or two points. We all acknowledge that there are deficiencies in terms of research funding in this country. The Minister acknowledged that we are currently well below the EU average. Does he favour a single research funding model for the higher education sector or would he envisage that we would have a number of research agencies, as is the case currently? I would welcome the Minister's thoughts in that regard in order to get clarity.

How does he envisage that the technological universities would collaborate with the traditional university sector? How will the Department foster such collaboration in the future? How does he intend to foster the development of relationships between the two types of university?

THEA was before the committee last week to discuss the sustainable funding of third level education. We all know it is an issue and we must have a mature and responsible debate about it. We need to grasp the nettle in that regard. What is the status of the commission's report? If the Minister wishes, he can elaborate on the three types of funding model that were proposed and his views on each of them.