Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I apologise to Dr. O’Reardon. I was at another committee, so I am in great danger of asking him questions someone has already asked. It will just give him the opportunity to answer them better the second time.

I wish Dr. O’Reardon well in the Department. The establishment of a Department of higher education was a key demand in our negotiations on the programme for Government, founded in the Tánaiste’s belief that higher education was not best served by being included among all the other elements of education. Our competitiveness on the world stage is dependent on the talent pool available in Ireland, and higher education is the key driver of that. The work the Department has undertaken is important and I wish everyone in it well. This is not in any way meant to discredit or undermine the work of the Department of Education. I say that mostly because the two Departments share a building and I would not want Dr. O’Reardon going back to lunch after anyone said otherwise. It is just that there is a slightly different focus, and higher and further education is well served by being placed in this Department. A range of ETB services and apprenticeship programmes are getting a different level of focus now than they would have otherwise.

At the LinkedIn campus yesterday, I attended a fantastic event about the Inspire Mentoring programme, which takes HEAR students from disadvantaged areas who have great talent and ability. It is not a programme that keeps people from falling between the cracks. Rather, it gives them the opportunity to elevate and inspire. The students there are in their final year. The programme gives them the opportunity to link in with mentors from their own areas or from similar backgrounds. Mentors can connect those young people through their little black books and give them opportunities to access networks that may be more readily available to others because of their economic backgrounds. It is a great programme that shows the opportunity that further education provides.

One of the institutions that has gone on that journey has been TU Dublin. We have seen it develop from the vocational colleges into the institutes of technology in Dublin and now into a technological university. Obviously, there were concerns about the stories that emerged about an accounting error of €7 million. What engagement has the Department had with the HEA and TU Dublin, not only on that matter, but also on the broader issue of developing a deficit? If I am correct, borrowing or creating deficits was not the idea in the legislation.