Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I agree with Ms Dolan. It would be astonishing for that to happen. Trojan collaborative work was done by the Connacht-Ulster Alliance in getting to this stage, so I would be shocked to hear that the Mayo campus would not have a voice. It would be repugnant and contravene what had been accepted to this point. To start backtracking at this early stage would ring alarm bells. This is something that I will raise with the Minister separately because we cannot allow that to happen.

I wish to address Ms Donegan's comments on research funding and core funding. We have all the figures in terms of student-teacher ratios and chronic underfunding, particularly since 2008. There has been a large increase in the number of students. This committee must face that issue. Otherwise, we will not be going anywhere. Taking inflation into account and so on, funding is approximately 75% less than it was in 2008. We cannot keep doing more with less.

We are all looking forward to the Cassells report coming back. Its option No. 1 is my preferred option. We need the report back as soon as possible. In light of what people are trying to achieve in this context, we need absolute commitment on the report sooner rather than later. We are five years the far side of the report and we cannot keep dragging our feet. We know what the knock-on effect on tuition and so on would be. If we do not have adequate funding to underpin the announcement after announcement of extra places, it will be an insult to everyone and damage the advancement of our knowledge as a nation.