Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform at this stage. That Department decides to make money available to the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to create spaces. The big problem is that, if the colleges have already accepted applicants from overseas for the coming year, they are tied by that. We now need to fast-track this before commitments are made. I really think that. I do not understand why we cannot plan ahead in this whole area. There seems to be a lack of joined-up thinking between all of the Government Departments and the universities.