Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Last week the Fund the Future campaign was launched by the Coalition for Publicly Funded Higher Education. The Taoiseach will be aware of same. It is seeking a commitment to the funding of higher education. Michael Brennan reported in the Sunday Business Postthat the extra revenue raised through the national training fund increases had been used to reduce the core contribution of the Government to third level institutions. Is that correct? In effect, there was a €15 million cut in Government funding, which was offset by €51 million in additional revenue from the national training fund. Some €36 million covered the cost of additional pay under the public sector agreement, while there was €16 million to meet the cost of increased student numbers. There was, however, no additional funding for new initiatives, which is not right. I ask the Taoiseach to address that issue. It is three years since the Cassells report was published in March 2016 on the funding of third level education. There are big issues to be dealt with, but there are really important issues to be dealt with related to the future of third level education in Ireland. I specifically ask the Taoiseach when the Government will make a decision on how the critically important area of third level education will be funded into the future?

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