Mr. Jim Miley:

I will take the question on the National Training Fund. The question is whether it should be used for core funding. We speak to IBEC, which represents employers. Its members contribute the levies to the National Training Fund. As I said, an extra €191 million a year has been going in since 2017. We understand the surplus is now approaching €1 billion. Frankly, it is bizarre we are here speaking about a scarcity of funds in the sector while €1 billion is sitting in a bank account somewhere in the State. This issue has to be fixed. Employers who contribute money are equally adamant it needs to be fixed. Its current framing in a very rigid skills framework is too narrow. If we look at IBEC's submissions on this, it has made the case it needs to be broadened. All of our institutions are involved in producing graduates and in doing research to provide skills or to provide the base for skills in the economy. We need a broader interpretation and a mechanism for this. It cannot be beyond the ingenuity of the system to come up with this. It is obscene that the money remains unspent while there is a glaring need from students and the institutions that house those students for funding.