Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Ríordáin for the question. If we were debating this a couple of months ago the first priority we would have had was making sure we could get the college campuses reopened and get students back on campus in a safe way. We discussed this at great length in the House. I thank everybody who worked extraordinarily hard to do this, including trade unions, student unions and management bodies. The real collaboration we have seen in the further and higher education sector has resulted in our college campuses reopening. I also thank them for the work they did on online learning during that time.

The Deputy's question hits on a very important issue. There were things we learned as a result of Covid about how our education system can be agile and flexible, how there can be different ways of doing things and how we can have a university without walls. There is no doubt that while many people found it extremely difficult that college campuses were closed there were some students who said to me that by education being available online they were able to access it in a way they may not have been able to otherwise. We need to acknowledge this also. I am very conscious of the enormous efforts made by our institutions to respond to the various needs of learners during the pandemic. This was marked by a highly collaborative approach, consideration of those at risk or otherwise vulnerable and the adoption of innovative practices to support learners.

The Government is committed to delivering civil and political rights to people with disabilities and the realisation of social and economic rights as espoused in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Public bodies have obligations under the Equality Acts, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act and other legislation. The Department is working with institutions to deliver on these obligations and to further embed policies in areas such as universal design for learning. It is up to everyone in the system to look at how we can retain and build on the innovations that we adopted during the pandemic. For example, we learned a lot about how the digital divide can affect people.

Institutions are autonomous bodies. They have academic freedom and responsibility for their teaching and learning activities. The question of me directing them does not arise.

At a national and institutional level, I now want to sit down with stakeholders and look at how we can embed the good practice we have seen and I want to do this in the context of the publication of the new national access plan before Easter.

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