Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Since the Senator has no further questions, I might get to ask a few questions now, at least until the other members return and I get ejected from this seat.

I welcome the Minister and thank him for attending. It is a traumatic situation for the people coming to Ireland from Ukraine. We discussed this matter with the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan. It is excellent to see what is being put in place to support these people.

The Minister, Deputy Harris, spoke about trying to identify the numbers. We know of 6,000 - 4,000 going into primary school and approximately 2,000 going into secondary school. The number doing the leaving certificate has been mentioned. I understand that approximately 250 students have stated that they would like to sit the Ukrainian entrance exams in Ireland. It is phenomenal that we are able to host those exams, so I wish to pay tribute to the Department, THEA, the IUA and the universities that are supporting that.

Even though they are more for the other Department, the Minister might have some thoughts on questions that I asked in our previous session. I raised some interesting questions about the secondary school career guidance teacher's role in respect of Ukrainian students. I do not know how many of the 2,000 are at senior cycle level. As the Minister mentioned, the role of ETBs is important. There are colleges of education in many towns around Ireland. The breakdown of where these secondary level students are shows that there are more than 250 in County Galway, for example. How can we deliver courses where the costs are lower, the students do not have to travel and they can do pre-nursing courses or other early study courses to reach level 5 while also doing their English language courses so that, in the following year, they will be able to engage with third level fully instead of all of the pressure being applied immediately?

The national student and researcher, NSR, help desk is fantastic. It has dealt with more than 535 queries, which is amazing. It can just be contacted via phone and email at the moment, though. Does it have a web page yet or is one going to be set up? Something with FAQs would be useful, particularly when everyone is googling and doing quick searches.

The Minister stated that students from Ukraine would be treated the same way as Irish students, they would not pay fees and SUSI supports would be available. He also stated that post-leaving certificate, PLC, courses would be free for them. That would be fantastic.

Regarding grants under the Marie Skodowska-Curie Actions, MCSA, the Minister referred to €25 million in direct aid at European level to fund fellowships. This is crucial. There is such a level of education in Ukraine that we can only benefit. When I had a chance to visit the Donamon Fáilte Centre in Roscommon, I met many young people from Ukraine who were chomping at the bit to give something back to the community. Be it fellowships, competency courses or something done through the National Academic Recognition Information Centre, NARIC, that will be crucial.

The Minister referred to queries from approximately 25 researchers and he spoke about the specific English language competency for academics and researchers at that level. In some science, technology, engineering and mathematics, STEM, subjects, English is the international language. Are specific sectors being considered? University research teams can be very international.