Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Ministers well in this necessary Department, which all of us want to see do very well. A number of Members have already spoken about the fact that we have some staffing issues in third level. A number of people would be on precarious contracts. That must be brought to a head from the point of view of sustainability and ensuring that people can put in all the effort and time they want to deliver education for our people.

That is something we need to deal with and take off the table. I would like to talk specifically about Dundalk Institute of Technology, DkIT. There are a number of favourable points for DkIT. We are glad to have the institute in Dundalk. The College Connect access programme is a good project which we would to see expanded. It is not only about making journeys easier for people, sometimes those coming into third level from more disadvantaged backgrounds, but also building relationships with communities. I also refer to the spectacular work done by places such as Ó Fiaich College and other institutes that offer post-leaving certificate courses, which provide another vehicle for people who do not necessarily follow the traditional route of the leaving certificate to make it through to third level. This is something that we need to look into. We had the situation with the leaving certificate this year but in many cases, people see a black and white scenario. There are many vehicles to get to where one wants to be in life and we need to work on that.

A major issue for DkIT is the idea of technical university status. I call on the Minister to ensure that his Department will work with all necessary stakeholders to deliver this. I know there was a notion that DkIT was quite slow to engage about this and there was no room at the inn for a number of groupings of institutes of technology and former institutes of technology. I know there are particular issues in the universities and complaints being dealt with, involving the Ombudsman. I do not want to get into the details of that. It is a necessity that DkIT does not fall behind. I call on the Minister and Minister of State to use the Department to deliver technical university status for DkIT.

In the last seconds that I have, I raise nursing and midwifery students. For obvious reasons, many who would have previously worked part-time in health are not able to do that at this point or when doing work experience. There is a small payment, including for travel. We need to make sure that it is sped up. While it usually paid retrospectively, we should pay it to them to make things easier for them to do vital work for themselves and us.

See this speech in context