David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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I will move to funding for third and fourth-level institutions and will start with institutes of technology, specifically the ones with which I am most familiar, namely, Waterford Institute of Technology, WIT, and Institute of Technology Carlow. In 2008, the core grant for WIT was €40,134,565. In 2016, the core grant was €26,000,460, which is a very substantial cut in core funding over that period. The level of student enrolment has remained static but the funding has been cut from €40 million, essentially, to €26 million. Could Mr. Ó Foghlú talk to us about the funding for institutes of technology and his understanding of the percentage of pay as against core funding in respect of institutes of technology? Is it a problem?