Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The higher education sector recognises and shares a commitment to the need to maximise available resources. This year's recurrent and capital spend on higher education is more than €2 billion. I am simply making the point that the number of applications made at this point does not necessarily reflect the number of people who will be seeking places. However, I acknowledge the Deputy's assertion that the issue concerns how we can maximise available resources, achieve economies and work with the Higher Education Authority.

I welcome the commitment that has been given by all the institutions to work together in finding a way to accommodate the growing demand. A timely exercise is also being conducted under the chairmanship of Dr. Colin Hunt on a national strategy for higher education, in which regard a report should issue in spring. This exercise will help us to plan for higher demand on foot of the increase from 12% to 14% in the proportion of mature student applications. This is perhaps a reflection of the limited number of job opportunities and the desire of people to upskill. I welcome that demand for higher education places but we have to work within the budgetary parameters. The budgets are substantial and there is room to accommodate this increased demand by means of better co-operation between institutions. This work is under way as we speak under the auspices of the Higher Education Authority.

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