Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)

With the permission of the House, I wish to share my time with Deputies Michael McCarthy and Kevin Humphreys.

I want to speak about the importance of investing in and producing graduates at third level which forms an important part of the debate. It is common for everyone seeking access to the public service these days to be treated as a customer. However, students are not customers, no more than primary schoolchildren. A right to a third level education has been established. There is substantial evidence that when third level fees were in place, they were a barrier to participation in college. I cannot go into all of the statistics, but there have been substantial increases, as covered in the report, Who Goes to College?, carried out by Professor Patrick Clancy and others for the ESRI and the HEA. For example, it was found that between 1998 and 2004 the manual skills group had almost doubled its participation rate in college. Before third level fees were abolished, the same studies showed that three income groups, in particular, were in decline as regards their rates of participation in college education. People make assertions that somehow the abolition of fees made the position on access to third level education worse, but that is not borne out by the statistics. Across the board, the figures show that all socio-economic groups have improved their participation rates in college education since the abolition of third level fees.

The core of third level investment should be the teaching of students. Many involved in the third level sector, including some heads of universities, seem to believe the priorities should embrace other matters apart from the teaching of graduates. It is very important that whatever funding is made available for third level investment, the core mission should be producing graduates and ensuring high quality teaching. We should never lose sight of this.

In terms of the need to make savings, we need to look at how much money is being spent on teaching, what lecturers do with their time and where the money is going. This is very necessary. As in many other areas, there are areas in the education system where money has been wasted. That should be the first port of call in saving money at college level.

It should be acknowledged that the Teachers Union of Ireland voted the other day to increase teaching hours by 12%. Obviously, that will result in savings.

As regards other initiatives, we should tap into the ESF, as we did in the past, for third level services. That was very successful. We should have a more flexible model of education to help reduce the number of drop-outs from third level, which would bring about savings. We must also look at capping salaries of those at the top levels. The four Dublin ITs have come up with a proposal for one technological university in Dublin, a measure which might also produce savings. There is much that could be done to make savings. It costs approximately €5,200 in social welfare payments for an 18 to 21 year old on jobseeker's assistance. That money could be used to help that person get third level qualifications. Investing in third level is an investment in our economy and we should not do anything to prevent people from going to college, such as reintroducing third level fees.

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