Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)

Waterford needs a university in order that the city, the county and the region can have adequate numbers of graduates as Ireland moves more and more in the direction of a knowledge economy. In the absence of a university, Waterford and the south east have suffered from a significant brain drain with an estimated 7,000 people leaving to study at university annually. School leavers who want to enjoy the benefits of a university education have no choice but to leave the region and the experience in Waterford is that, once people leave, it is difficult to get them back. Unless sufficient highly qualified people graduate within the region and become available for prospective employers, Waterford and the south east will be unable to compete with other regions in attracting investment from major international companies and the local economy will suffer greatly in the long term.

Last week I tabled a parliamentary question to the Minister for Education and Science asking whether a decision would be reached on the application by Waterford Institute of Technology, WIT, to become a university by the end of the year. For the third time this Dáil term, he replied that the application would be finalised in the near future. This is not only an education matter because it is absolutely vital to job creation in the region. That is simply not good enough. The fact that this matter continues to be long fingered underlines the neglect of the development of Waterford and the south east by the Government parties and the failure to adopt a meaningful strategy for economic and industrial development. The lack of a university seriously handicaps the region in generating jobs in the sectors where sustainable employment can be created such as the knowledge economy, pharmaceuticals, medical technologies and international financial services. These sectors need positive Government intervention urgently.

Last year, universities in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Maynooth and Limerick received a total of €761 million in recurrent funding while Waterford and the south east received nothing. WIT received less than €49 million in recurrent funding last year out of a total of almost €525 million for the entire institute of technology sector. All regional cities, with the exception of Waterford, also benefited from having a local institute of technology but the total third level grant allocation in these cities is in an entirely different league from Waterford. For example, in the west, grants to NUI Galway and the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology totalled almost €147 million, which is approximately €98 million more than Waterford received. On a purely financial basis, this puts us at a serious disadvantage before we begin to account for all the spin-off benefits a university would provide.

We look forward to the day when Waterford and the south east will at least be on a par with Galway in spending on third level education. Comparison with Limerick is also instructive. The University of Limerick secured grants of almost €97 million in 2007 while Limerick Institute of Technology received €30 million, a total of €127 million. This means the local economy in Limerick benefited directly from State funding of third level education by almost €79 million more than Waterford last year. This represents a sizeable transfer of funds into the Limerick economy and, in financial terms alone, an annual injection of this magnitude would make a major difference to struggling small businesses in Waterford.

While WIT is acknowledged as the sole and premier provider of third level education in the city, it is nowhere near the top of the institute of technology league in recurrent funding. For example, Dublin Institute of Technology received almost €134 million and Cork Institute of Technology received €62 million. This is not a case of Waterford and the south east begrudging other cities their third level institutions but it is a call to give us the opportunity to prove that with our fair share of State funding for third level education, we can transform Waterford city and county and the south east region. I demand that a positive decision on the application by Waterford Institute of Technology is made by the end of this year.

See this speech in context