Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

First, I want to pay tribute to the third level sector because, despite declining current account support from the Department of Education and Skills, which will continue through this year, the number of students entering the college system is increasing. By and large, outcomes are still good and there has not been a marked deterioration in standards.

The Deputy will be aware that the HEA recently published a series of documents, which were posted on the website last Friday, including the landscape document. They also include the response the institutions are making to that document and some other international studies, as well as a longitudinal study undertaken by the ESRI. I will address the heads of universities, institutes of technology and others on Thursday morning on this topic, outlining my response to where the HEA currently is and what has to happen at a later stage.

At some stage we will have to address the issue of the long-term financial sustainability of our third level education system. At the moment, however, I do not know the level of course duplication between the 14 institutes of technology, the seven universities and other third level colleges. I want to see what room there is for economies, the discontinuance of duplicate courses and other means to reduce costs. It is not that I want to take money out of the system, I want that money to be better used. When we have those figures - it will take at least a year to begin to count them - we will know what is the real gap in sustainable funding. We will then address the question of how best to close that gap.

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