Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister for his innovative approach to answering questions. We have all experienced cases of Ministers reading out only half of a prepared reply because it was excessively long. I look forward to having a good dialogue with the Minister.

In his recent address to the Royal Irish Academy the Minister referred to the major challenges facing the education system arising from demographical change and, thankfully, the continued increase in the number of people participating in and accessing third level education. He also spoke fluently about improvements in the educational profile, the global rankings Irish universities have achieved through good management and significant investment of resources in recent years. Retention rates and the quality of courses are also good.

The Minister stated some months ago that the Hunt report needed to be dealt with urgently. According to the report, the third level sector urgently requires additional funding of approximately €500 million per annum. Why is the Government not acting on its recommendations? Is this not a case of kicking to touch another report? What additional benefits will the new report the Minister has requested from the Higher Education Authority bring to the debate?

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