Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I again thank our guests for coming along to this meeting. The committee is united. We are not united on many things but we are certainly united in the view that education in the agrifood sector is crucially important if we are to sustain and develop the sector in Ireland and meet the many challenges coming down the line. I have a brief question on the Covid response. Teagasc students were given, by and large, the same supports as other higher education students during the course of the pandemic, such as the laptop scheme and so on. From responses I have received to parliamentary questions and FOI requests, it appears these supports were provided from within Teagasc’s existing budget and that no additional supports were given by the Departments of Agriculture, Food and the Marine or Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to those schemes. I ask our guests to confirm whether that is the case.

To touch again on green certs, does Teagasc feel it has the capacity to deal with all of those applications? Is there currently a waiting list or backlog? What numbers of new applicants does it expect next year and can it deal with those numbers? Is there a need to work with the ETB sector? What role does Teagasc see for the ETB further education centres in delivering green certs into the future? I understand that ETBs can access funds through the national training fund to provide green cert course. Does Teagasc have the same access to those resources? I ask the witnesses to provide clarification on that.

Some of the parliamentary questions I submitted to the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science on green certs were transferred to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, who then told me he did not have any oversight of green certs within ETBs. It appears that without the likes of Teagasc being given a very clear role in directing the green cert output, we could have a serious loss of direction. Joined-up thinking is crucially important and goes back to the very first question asked. All our speakers have indicated that. Teagasc is considered a leading organisation in agricultural research. However, it seems to be more ad hocwhen it comes to agricultural education. Teagasc colleges have links to many other local third level institutions and courses but it appears this is a result of arrangements made locally. Is there scope for a more co-ordinated approach? Last year we heard reports that agriculture science teachers at second level were at odds with the Department of Education on the new leaving certificate course. Did Teagasc have any input into those second level courses? Would it be fair to say that more can be done to improve joined-up thinking across Teagasc, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and the Department of Education?