Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Again, I cannot go into details of the budget this week as the Government is in the middle of negotiations on it. To clarify, however, the amount allocated last year through the Higher Education Authority for this area was €939 million, while in 2013 it was just over €1 billion. While I acknowledge there undoubtedly has been a slight reduction in this regard, the Deputy might understand this if I point it out the reason. When the present Government came into office three years ago, it was €20 billion short of the sum it needed to run the country. One should be clear on this point, as this shortfall of €20 billion was not of the Government's doing but was the position it inherited. It has been obliged to try to make sure that in the meantime, while the country recovers, it spends the money it has as best it can. Moreover, the Government has targeted it as best it can towards education and in most areas, it has protected the funding to education. To be clear, however, the Deputy has quoted tables and has stated the universities are slipping down while still trying to state they are doing well. They are doing extremely well, compared with the 15,000 universities against which they are competing throughout the world. The Government's own reports and evaluations suggest that in general, industry sources - an important viewpoint - are very satisfied with what is coming through the education system and the universities. Their graduates are employment-ready and are succeeding very well as graduates in employment. This also is how one judges the success of an education system within a recovering economy in which one also is trying to build an enterprise-driven economy.

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