Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Competition for the new funds will stimulate excellence through collaboration and change. Details of the administration of the fund will be announced by the Minister for Education and Science over the coming days. In addition, it is essential that investment in modern facilities is maintained in university and institute of technology campuses around the country. As a result, we are committing €900 million to the third level sector over the next five years as part of the Department of Education and Science capital envelope. Of this, €630 million will be Exchequer capital funding and €270 million PPP funding. The physical development will need to reflect the changed approach where there must be greater co-operation between the institutions involved to give maximum benefit for the taxpayer.

This brings planned investment in capital spend and the strategic innovation fund for third level education to €1.2 billion over the period 2006 to 2010. These strands of planned investment in higher education form a core element of the Government's strategy for developing skills and competencies. They will form an important element of the investment strategy for the new National Development Plan 2007-2013 where third level and fourth level education——

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