Mr. Keith Moynes:

I thank the Senator for his questions. Having listened to the earlier session, the question on the timeline is relevant. We are in a deliberative process at the moment and the matter has not gone to Government yet. Therefore, I am not going to be able to give the Senator a definitive answer with regard to the timeline but there are a few things I can say. First, the Senator is right that the 2023-24 academic year is too ambitious. We are in train with the CAO and all of that but given the capabilities that would have to be put in place, we are not talking about the coming academic year. On the issue of where are vis-à-visthe steps in the process, we are engaging at the moment with other Departments and received reports from them a number of weeks ago. The Minister, Deputy Harris, has met the Minister for Health on the other side of the expressions of interest process and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine on the issue of veterinary provision.

The Department has been engaging with the HEA on some of the detailed points in the report, which is very strong, so we have a clear understanding of the issues. We need to talk to the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform because that is the way the process works.

Any extension of this provision is, by its nature, costly. There are reasons it has not been done for 50 years. It is a very costly form of provision. We need to talk to our colleagues in the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. The Minister has indicated that he wants to bring the matter to the Government in the first instance to do a number of things. He wants to advise his colleagues of the opportunities identified through the capacity-building process. He wants to outline the costs that could arise with any expansion. He also wants to update his colleagues and engage with them. We will then take that forward into the Estimates process and any process relating to capital allocations, because that is what it boils down to. It is a matter of competing resources. This is a costly endeavour and we must consider how it feeds into the budgetary process. That is the key question. The budgetary process happens in autumn. Without prejudging what the Government will say, those are the steps we are taking. However, these decisions are not made in advance of budget time.