Gerard Craughwell (Independent)
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I thank Mr. Boland and his team. At the outset, I compliment Mr. Boland on his availability to anybody who wishes to discuss the strategy at any time. His energy sometimes amazes me. He has been available to the unions and to various conferences nationwide and I compliment him on that. I am a little concerned by the requirement for mergers before the establishment of technological universities. My colleague, Deputy McConalogue, adverted to the position in the south east. It is clear there is not a happy relationship there and while I do not necessarily want Mr. Boland to go into it, were one to believe everything one reads, it would suggest that at present, one of the institutions concerned is ready to go while the other is a lame duck trotting along behind. It strikes me that if the south east is ready to go with one institution, this probably should be considered.

The cluster issue also causes me some concern. If one considers the west-north-west cluster, it proposes the inclusion of Letterkenny Institute of Technology as part of a cluster that extends as far east as Athlone, as well as taking in Galway, Sligo and Castlebar. If one is travelling to Galway from Letterkenny for a meeting, it is a two-day journey as far as I am concerned. Therefore, I am a little concerned as to the direction being taken in trying to force together these institutions. Is the underlying aim to rationalise? In the context of rationalisation, what will happen to regional provision? Again, taking Letterkenny as an example, despite its international reputation the catering school in Killybegs was closed and moved to Letterkenny. I acknowledge there are probably funding issues there, which brings me to the issue of funding and the funding of the mergers. From what I can gather, the HEA seeks greater resources, yet the mergers are to go ahead based on whatever funding currently is available, which means cutting deeper into the current system. I would welcome Mr. Boland's views on that.

The relationship between further education and higher education in Ireland has baffled me for the past 20 years. One can take year 1 and year 2 of a further education course in many further education colleges and then transfer to year 3 in a British university. However, in Irish institutes of technology and universities one must go back to year 1 with little acknowledgement of the period of study in further education colleges. Why are the British able to accept our level 5 and level 6 qualifications, while our own institutions are not? There is a breakdown in link-up in this regard.

Senator O'Donnell referred to the apprenticeship issue. There is a huge job of work to do to upgrade apprenticeship because each time I see a graduation of a class of higher education students, I wonder how many of them would have made good mechanics, painters or whatever. This is a role here for both SOLAS and the HEA.

With regard to the attrition rates in first year and leaving aside the issue of attrition altogether, there are also latent aspects of attrition if one falls out of year 1 of a course for which one was completely mismatched. We ask children of 17 or 18 years of age to choose a course that will determine their career trajectory. They may find when they embark on the course that it is not what they expected and there is no second alternative or second chance. I acknowledge some institutions will allow a little flexibility in first year if one wishes to move across courses. However, if one is deemed to have fallen out, the financial cost is astronomical. Has the HEA strategies in place for this?