Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail)
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It was the right decision. The Minister and his officials have achieved an awful lot in a relatively short period, both in terms of what we have achieved with TUs, the higher education Act and some of the funding reforms. The Minister will appreciate that my job over the next five and a half minutes is not to spend my time praising him but to focus on a couple of the key outstanding issues.

I will put one question directly, before coming to others. The Minister made a commitment that the sum identified in Funding our Future - €307 million, which is the funding shortfall for the higher education sector - would be addressed over three budgets. While I appreciate his point, I think that the €40 million in the budget this year only went part of the way and represented a disappointing movement on the €307 million shortfall. There are two budgets left, however, assuming the Minister remains in the Department. That means we are going to have to look at an additional €130 million, or more, in each of budgets 2024 and 2025. How confident is the Minister that the balance of the sum that has been identified - the shortfall - will be delivered? How committed is he in that regard?