Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for his question. I am sure he will have read the responses of the universities. This was one of the things they welcomed. They welcomed the fact, over the last two budgets, we provided €105 million to bridge the gap. We are providing another €50-odd million this year, bringing the figure to around €150 million. We will provide €50 million in 2025 and €75 million in 2026 and will have fully bridged that gap by 2030. That is very important from our point of view. We see our universities as critical places of learning. We have accepted the €307 million figure. We have not been trying to hide behind it but we also recognise that across all of the areas we have responsibility for - skills, apprentices, postdoctoral research, the whole shooting gallery of €4.5 billion - and opening up the-----