Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Please do not forget about me. I congratulate the three new Ministers, Deputies Foley, Harris and Madigan, on their appointments and wish them all the very best.

I echo the words of my colleague, Deputy Connolly. As I have said in previous debates, value for money needs to be part of the discussion. For now, however, I will leave that aside.

I fully support the Minister, Deputy Foley, on the principle of reopening our schools. Many parents and teachers have contacted me and for all of them, the continuing education of children is an absolute priority. The Minister spoke of some of the components that will allow this to happen. She spoke of employing more teachers and specifically mentioned small schools. I agree but we must also ensure larger schools get support. I wrote to the Minister about a relatively large school that had the numbers to employ an extra teacher in 2021 but it is not able to employ this teacher this year. It is going to end up with 33 junior infants in a class and an empty classroom. In such circumstances, schools should be able to employ an extra teacher.

As I mentioned to the previous Minister, many community and voluntary groups have community centres and other suitable premises available to them. Language schools, for example, have space that could be used by primary or post-primary schools. I ask the Minister to consider that.

To address the Minister with responsibility for further and higher education, Deputy Harris, the development of the Connacht-Ulster technological university, TU, must be prioritised. Everybody talks about balanced regional development. An essential component of that is third level facilities where creativity and excellence can flourish. The three colleges that would make up the Connacht-Ulster technological university are the National University of Ireland Galway, NUIG, Institute of Technology Sligo and Letterkenny Institute of Technology, LYIT. Two of the three can meet the criteria but the issue is whether all three will meet them by the end of the year. The guidelines allow two of the three colleges to proceed ahead and the third to join afterwards. While I hope all three can meet the criteria, if that is not the case, it is absolutely essential that the two which can meet them proceed. I will give the Minister one statistic that shocked me when I heard it. The south and east, as the Minister will be aware, is mentioned twice in the programme for Government. When all of the technological universities are in place, we will have five third level colleges in the southern part of the country, eight in Dublin and two in Connacht-Ulster. That is only if the Connacht-Ulster technological university goes ahead. I ask for an absolute commitment from the Minister, while the window of opportunity is available, to work with the three colleges in question and if two of them can go ahead, to ensure the new technological university is in place by the end of the year.

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