Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I was at University College Cork recently where this matter was raised with me. I was told that some of the apparatuses that I had trained on 30 years ago when I studied chemistry had not changed a whole pile, but the world has changed a great deal. Many of our universities have relied on foundations, philanthropy and industry. We acknowledge that. It is not where we would like to be, but the National Training Fund is changing that utterly. It gives us a roadmap for investing in equipment and facility upgrades that we could not have imagined being able to do in the fund’s absence. The use of the National Training Fund – I hope it will be me negotiating next year’s Estimate, but if it is someone else, then the best of luck to him or her – will become a live issue because there will be many wins and positives from the moneys that employers, including the State, pay into it. We will be able to invest in equipment at a very basic level in some cases but also at a higher level. There is also Taighde Éireann, a matter that the Senator has discussed in the Seanad and in which he has a lot of interest. It is the successor to Science Foundation Ireland. Our universities engage in a great deal of research collaboration with what was SFI and is now Research Ireland. There are opportunities in that space. For the science disciplines in particular, the unlocking of the National Training Fund has been a game-changer.