Mr. Karl Byrne:

I will come in on a couple of points. The Deputy asked me a direct question about privatisation. ICTU did a report that shows nearly 50% of money is now from the private sector. There has been a huge drop in public funding from what it used to be. It was close to 80% or 90% previously. That is why we are saying this should be the beginning of the discussion. When the report comes out we would love to come back to the committee and have a discussion because at that stage we can answer the questions on how to deal with what is being put in front of us. A number of the people here, including us and the representatives from the USI, IFUT and TUI, as well as SIPTU, Fórsa and Unite, are part of Education Futures, the campaigning group we put together to try to deal with future funding. We had three pillars, which are the metrics by which we should be measuring things when the report from the Department comes out. The three pillars - access, the quality of the education system, and decent work - set down what we need the future funding model to deal with.

The employment control framework does not just deal with academics but with all staff across the system. Even if a university wanted to hire a security guard, it is set in stone. That causes problems because if they do not have the funding, they might outsource or bring in a temporary cleaner or security guard. It is across the system. The employment control framework is a legacy of the crisis and it must be done away with. We need to have those discussions across the board on what having more money in the system means going forward and how we deal with it.

The USI has given a very clear report on the effects of the accommodation crisis on students and we support it on that.