Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this Bill and I wish to congratulate the Minister on bringing it forward, particularly given its long gestation and the many false starts. Higher education is a serious business. It is critical to our economic, social, and cultural progress. When you gather all the sources of public funding flowing into these institutions, it becomes a serious sum. Our methods of oversight and accountability are not appropriate. I said this to the Minister during previous statements. They do not keep up with the job of trying to keep tabs on our shrewd university presidents. Of course, we all want vibrant, independent and critical institutions, but other countries navigate these choppy waters of accountability and independence. I am still stunned at the cheek of the sector, using a largely publicly-funded purse to fund an elaborate marketing campaign recently, Save Our Spark, hammering home its cause for additional funding. It is hard to believe these claims when the sector can drop €250,000 into such public relations, PR, generation and promotion.

As a Deputy, as I said before, I have no way to find out about, for example, UCD's exotic financial arrangements in the Orient. Do lecturers get topped-up salaries, effectively double pay? Who actually owns the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland? How can UCC afford €215 million for just two buildings? How much do they cost per square metre? On what planet is that square metre cost value for money?

The university's annual reports are junk PR. They are all sizzle and no sausage. The university presidents have grace and favour housing with wine cellars, butlers, chefs and waiting staff. Their extravagance in the sector is the stuff of legend. Yet, this year, I will be asked as a Deputy to provide a Vote of more than €2 billion for that sector. How can I know what I am supporting? It is terrifying that, collectively, our seven universities now appear to have borrowing of just under €1 billion. Presumably, there is some recourse to the State if these institutions cannot meet these debts. This is terrifying because university governance issues have clogged up the Committee of Public Accounts for years.

Time and again, the Higher Education Authority, HEA, has failed us. It has failed in its job of oversight and to properly allocate public resources in ways that best serve the public interest. Indeed, the HEA appears to allocate university funding based on a custom and practice model from before modern Ireland emerged. It has failed in its job to make the sector transparent. It has failed to stamp out bad practice or to hold runaway university presidents and their wild expenditures to account. They have demonstrated that they cannot be frugal. They have a tin ear to the public and cannot manage their social responsibilities. They operate under the fabrication that they are financially independent of the State, a situation which I understand is necessary to avoid their considerable debts hitting the national balance sheet, but that cannot be used as an excuse to avoid responsibility to the people of Ireland. That is why I welcome this Bill in principle. I commend the Minister on introducing it.

I advise the Minister that Trinity will have to be included in these measures. I know that Trinity has a special place in the heart of these Houses. Three Senators is a remarkable privilege. The Trinity of historic, aristocratic privilege was established by toffs with ruffs around their necks. I cannot be parleyed into escaping the simple fact that Trinity is now a modern institution of our Republic and substantially relies on public funding. The funding for Trinity is greater in measure than that provided to many other similar institutions. The patronage, custom and practice of the University of Limerick, as the Minister has reminded me, is the worst reason possible to avoid good governance. I welcome that these measures appear to replicate those of the new technological universities and represent a joining of the two sectors, so to speak.

This House and the Minister have promised Waterford a university of equal standing, along with the south east. This Bill appears to be putting the universities and technological universities on a similar footing, which is a good thing. This morning, on Leader's Questions, the Taoiseach told me that the technological university for the south east was the signature investment that Government will make in the region, which I should concentrate all my efforts on. The Taoiseach is certainly signalling significant investment for the technological university for the south east. I hope that, along with this progressive legislation that the Minister is proposing today, that the quantum of funding that he will announce for the technological university for the south east will be as transformative as the Government signalled in the House this morning. The reform of third level education demands it. Ending the south east's brain drain and political and regional equity demand it. I hope that, despite the progressive governance legislation that the Minister hopes to enact here, we in the south east do not stand to be disappointed.

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