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

I thank the witnesses for their extremely valuable contributions. This is probably one of the most valuable sessions we are likely to have, particularly considering their experience working on the Cassells report. My first question to the witnesses is how much damage do they think has been done? It is five years after the Cassells report was published. It has come back from the EU but we have not had sight of it yet. I would prefer if we had sight of it. We could have much more productive conversations around this, therefore, we are stabbing in the dark somewhat.

Ms Horan put it starkly. The accumulated shortfall in investment since 2016 - €2.7 billion in recurrent spending and €2.2 billion in capital spending - means we are almost €5 billion behind. We are falling behind all the time, and this is very concerning. We know it has been happening, yet we are told that we have never invested as much in higher education. We need to look beneath, as we are, in terms of the increase in the number of students and, as stated in the presentations, the cut. The truth is that it is 37%, and 50% less in real terms, per student. We need an honesty around where we are at if we are to dig down and see what we need to do here. We need to be honest about the opportunity cost. We need to be honest about where matters stand. We can no longer cover things up with once-off funding and making big announcements and stating that everything is wonderful.

We do a massive disservice to the entire population when we cover up what is happening in the funding of higher education. We need to see it as an investment rather than a spend. If we continue to see it as a spend, we will do a disservice across the board in terms of research, innovation, scholarships and all the other matters Ms Horan mentioned. What has been the impact of this underinvestment in education, working conditions, and research? What impact has it had on the public nature of third level education? I will ask Ms Horan to comment on that first. How do we compare internationally? How much are we falling behind internationally while we are standing still or going backwards in terms of investment in higher and further education?