John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I join everyone else in wishing the Cathaoirleach well in the role. I look forward to working as a member of the committee.

Much has been said, so I will not add a huge amount to it. There are a couple things I hope we might focus on that are of particular interest to me. This week, the theme has been the lack of services for disabled children and children with autism. We need to examine carefully the spaces within the third level sector for those therapists, who are crucial in meeting the needs of children with disabilities, such as speech and language therapists, physiotherapists, psychologists and occupational therapists. We should start by examining the service providers and getting real insight from them as to how difficult they are finding it to recruit people. Perhaps they could give us some insight as to how we can increase the numbers of people willing to take up those posts or take that up as an option for learning at third level.

Talking about numbers in health professions, I noted that last year, the highest number of work permits the country gave out were for nurses. Some 5,000 work permits were given out for nurses to come to Ireland to apply their trade here. I do not have the precise detail on it but I understand we train many nurses who leave the country. We need to examine that. Five thousand is a very significant figure in terms of work permits. We need to look at whether we are training enough nurses in our third level sector to meet the demand of our own system.

I agree with the comments about apprenticeships. Another thing we should do is a review. We are coming to the end of a five-year national strategy on apprenticeships. It included a provision that local authorities and other government bodies would initiate apprenticeship programmes. We should review that to see whether it happened and what did and did not work well in that strategy.

Maidir leis an nGaeilge, tá dualgas reachtúil orainn go mbeadh 20% d’fostaithe san earnáil phoiblí líofa sa Ghaeilge faoi 2030. There is a legislative obligation that 20% of the workforce of our public sector be competent in Irish by the year 2030.

The last estimate was around 3%. There is a huge amount of work to do there. Mar aon leis na daoine eile, tugaim cuireadh do chuile dhuine. I extend an invitation to everyone to come to Connemara where we have the educational resources to train those people in the Irish language, which is important from a legislative perspective and from a national cultural perspective. We need to examine the funding of the third level sector.

I have a slight concern that it is becoming increasingly corporate. My third level institution, of which I am a proud graduate and which sustained my family, members of which worked there for generations, spent six figures on naming and rebranding. I am concerned about the funding, the necessity for it to do that and why it felt that was important. Other third level institutions have never changed their names. In my lifetime to this point, the university in Galway has changed its name three times. What is that about? I think it is corporatism, and I am concerned about that. Regarding funding, it is important that third level institutions link with local industry, particularly when it comes to research and information. We need to examine that.

Our postgraduate cohort is a related issue. It is welcome that people from across the world see Ireland as a place where they would like to undertake postgraduate study, but I have a slight concern about what impact that is having on those who want to do their undergraduates studies in Ireland.

I recognise fully that a number of people have commented on barriers, including funding, accommodation and transport. I am not sure how far we can stray into the education system, but I am concerned that some of those barriers start much earlier in life, including at primary school. I am a primary school teacher. Not to profile people, but it was possible to tell at a young age who was destined to maintain their presence in the education system into their early adult years and who was not. Those are matters I would like to look at too. I look forward to working with the committee.