Professor Pádraig Ó Duibhir:

What my colleague has described is a challenge for any system, but we consider it important to remind the committee that the Irish higher education system continues to struggle in the aftermath of austerity and in the absence of a sustainable funding model. Additional places in teacher education programmes, new programmes and flexible modes of delivery are contingent on the resources to support them. Committee members have seen the facts, figures and tables about Irish higher education funding. Let us now give two very practical examples. One of our colleagues is the president of the European Educational Research Association and in that capacity hosted a recent meeting of the executive. The outgoing president leads the faculty of education in Utrecht in the Netherlands, with 600 students and 400 staff.