Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Given that it has over €1 billion sitting in it and soon it will have €2 billion, I believe it could if there was a political will and a bit of ingenuity. I am not saying it should, though. I believe it is a pot that needs to be considered.

I would like to mention a second issue that did not get enough of a hearing, although it got a fair hearing today at the implementation group from the sector, which I appreciate. We all talk about the €307 million, including me. We are all committed to filling that hole. We did something else in the budget, however. If we had not done it, the hole would have grown. There €307 million in money owed to the sector. I acknowledge the work of my colleague the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, on this. We got agreement for the first time to fund every new additional student entering college from September at the new higher Funding our Future rate. Every new additional student who goes into college from September will be funded 25% more in terms of funding to the university than students currently. As that washes through the system, for want of a better phrase, it means we become sustainable from this moment on. I said very clearly to the IUA and others that if we had not done that - if we had announced a larger sum for the core funding but not done that - we would have created another problem.

The third thing is that this is year one of implementation; it truthfully is. It is the first budget we have received for Funding our Future. Of course, we would all have liked it to be higher but we had to balance it with the cost-of-living pressures for students and their families and the significant investment we put into that. It will require time to build up our own capacity as a sector in terms of delivery. There are some key things, as we said at the implementation group today. We will need to prove that the €40 million makes a real and tangible difference, particularly in terms of staffing ratios, and does not - I am not suggesting this will happen - disappear or go into block grants. I think it could make a difference of at least half a point in the staff-student ratio this year. That is a tangible thing. When we go back to the Estimates discussions next year, we will be able to look at what we did with the €40 million and imagine what we can do into the future. I will work very closely with the Senator on this.