Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Cathaoirleach on her appointment to the role. This is a significant and important committee. The role that further and higher education and research and innovation plays in the majority of people’s lives across the country is very important. There is much work to be done. Importantly, we need to look at the barriers to further and higher education. There are serious issues in nearly every facet of what we talk about now in terms of housing, cost of living, access to purpose-built accommodation for students and not being in the same rental market as families, single people or couples, and access to third level education or further or higher level for those in the most disadvantaged communities. I was lucky to teach in a school in Cork in a socioeconomically disadvantaged, poor area. I was lucky to get the opportunity to teach those students, who genuinely feel they are locked out of further or higher education because of the community they are brought up in. Issues include access to home school liaison people, further access to the SUSI grant and other incentives we could provide to these students in disadvantaged areas. We need to look at the opportunities to enable them to progress their academic career.

Research is also of particular focus for me. My predecessor, the former Deputy Seán Sherlock, was a champion for research and innovation when he was Minister of State. We should look at how we can attract international students to our fantastic universities, and in particular at stipends and visa applications. I mentioned this on the floor of the Dáil. If a PhD course is going to be provided for four or five years, giving students an opportunity to get a four- or five-year working visa is very important.

As mentioned before, the role of apprenticeships is important. More than likely, everybody here has been in contact with their local authority, trying to get a plumber, carpenter, tradesman or tradeswoman out to a house to fix something and we just cannot get them. Most importantly, apprenticeships should be paid a minimum wage. For far too long in this country we have allowed apprenticeships to go unnoticed with regard to pay.

Coming from a rural part of Cork, I believe it is also very important that we look at public transport. I think we can feed into that very well here so that mothers, fathers or guardians will not be bringing students to colleges or further or higher education facilities and then having to go to their own work as well.

We need to work extremely hard, and I agree with Deputy Smith. We need to work extremely hard with students' unions and student bodies right across the country. They are the ones on the ground, listening to concerns that students are raising with them. Working with them and with the likes of Youth Work Ireland is going to be an essential part of this committee.

It is a privilege to be part of this committee. I hope we can perhaps leave politics at the door and work cohesively across the chamber for the benefit of everybody trying to access further and higher education and for the promotion of research and innovation in Ireland.