Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

In response to Deputy Lawlor's question, the problem is that financial institutions in the private sector are making loans available but, in many cases, parents or family relatives must go guarantor. Evidently, that mitigates against people without familial support to underwrite the loan. We are looking at ways in which loan finance can be made easier to access.

The detailed statistics on participation will be available when we see what happens in October.

I agree with Deputy Smith. We are looking for better collaboration between third level institutions and local businesses. This is particularly true in the institutes of technology sector, where the needs of business and enterprise in the general scientific research and applied research areas can be met. I saw very good examples of that in Athlone over nine months ago. In implementing the Hunt report, the Higher Education Authority, HEA, has asked institutes and universities to reply by the end of this month on their intentions regarding strategic alliances and collaboration as part of the review and reform of the HEA area.

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