Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to get an opportunity to speak on this. I will try to cover a lot of different topics. First, I welcome that finally the system, including the universities which have been pushing this hard, has been told that its option, the loan option, is not on the table. I remember during the 2000s, when I was in the Government. The summer is a good time to try to put a memo through. I remember one summer a memo was circulated but I was away. I sat down and sent back a very strong note saying that having read the documentation I was totally opposed to the loan option. It is hard enough for young people when they leave college to buy and insure a car and then get accommodation and then try to buy accommodation without being saddled with the cost of education on top of that. I welcome that decision.

I welcome that there will be more investment but we have to put it into context because the grant rates today are far below what they were. For example, the adjacent rate in 2022 will be €1,415 and a non-adjacent rate will be €3,225. In 2008 the adjacent rate was €1,370 which is ever so slightly less at €45, and the non-adjacent rate was €3,420 which is more. In fact we are standing still in the new rates compared to 2008 but there has been a lot of inflation since then and particularly in the last year. The special rate in 2022 will be €2,575 and a non-adjacent special rate will be €6,115. There is a similar pattern where in 2008 the adjacent rate was €2,680 which was greater than it will be next autumn and the non-adjacent rate was €6,690 which was €475 higher. We are only catching up. The idea that we are improving things is not true.

Then we go to the maddest decision which I could never understand. We are always boasting that "higher" higher education, that is postgraduate education, is so vital in this country. In 2021 the postgraduate rate was €3,500 which is a good increase on the €2,000. But in 2008 to 2010 it was €6,270 and quite rightly so. In the past a person would have gone to work after getting a degree and very few would have gone on to fourth level education but now it is very common. But people want to have an income by that stage. Many of them are doing free tutorials and so on. The decision that was taken back ten years ago was a bad one and one that was never future-proofed. The student contribution is now €3,000 where it was €900 in 2008. We need to look at this radically.

The same pattern is probably evident if we look at the grant ceilings for eligibility. They have not progressed according to inflation. I make a simple suggestion on that. When assessing parental income, particularly in the circumstances that people face now, mortgage or home rental costs should be deductible from the gross income, although a ceiling could be put on the disregard. There could be two families whose income looks the same, say €50,000 or €60,000, but one could have a very large mortgage and another none. There is a huge discrepancy between both.

One way of helping to solve the student accommodation crisis could be done by the Minister for Transport, Deputy Ryan, with the stroke of a pen. That would be to put in place much better radial services out of all the university and third level towns. I will give an example of a simple step. Until two years ago, no bus left Galway that went beyond Knocknacarra after 6 p.m. Unless student life has changed totally from the time I was in college, students did not want to go home every night at 6 p.m. They are entitled to a social life. Thankfully in that case we got three services up to 11 p.m. that are very well patronised. That makes it possible for students not to have to get accommodation in the city. Students can bunk-up the odd night they want to stay overnight but they do not need five-nights-a-week accommodation. If the bus or public transport services are not there they cannot do that. I bet if there was a survey of all the third level towns around the country, you would find a very bad, patchy pattern of public bus services out of those towns, particularly in the late evening. It would be a quick win. We are all the time talking about sustainable travel.

Of course, it would be very important that the 50% reduction for students be maintained.

An issue that of grave concern to me is access to third level education. We talk about reforming the leaving certificate. That is not my concern; the CAO race is. One examination decides what course a student gets into and whether the student becomes a doctor, if that is what he or she chooses to be. That system mitigates against people who do not have the resources. I am not sure that is getting us the best people into professions. There should be general courses for the first year in medicine and the other subjects requiring high points and then the choosing should be done at that point. It would be much more equitable and give many more people access to such courses. We know that if one does a map of third level access, one will find all the so-called rapid areas we used to have as being very low access. One will find Travellers as having very low access. We need to tackle that issue.

Another issue that concerns me is the need to maintain standards. I accept that research standards are high in this country. I am not so convinced that we are not slipping down in the general courses at level 8. It is absolutely important that we maintain standards and that there is high, rigid auditing. Other countries had a big dumbing down which did not do them an awful lot. We boast about good education but complacency is always a devil in situations such as these.

On science investment, Science Foundation Ireland was set up to do blue-sky research. If we want to attract companies and high-level, high-end researchers to this country, we have to be willing to invest in the future. There was a big move in the early part of the last decade towards applied research, getting results and working in projects that would give commercial results. We need to look at that again and make sure that this country is doing top-level, blue-sky research. It is a long-term investment. There is no immediate return. Many of the things we have talked about in the past few years emanated from blue-sky research that, over time, became applied research. If one is not doing blue-sky research, one will not attract top-end people.

I am concerned about career guidance for young people. Unfortunately, academics seem to have a greater cachet than apprenticeships. This is a major issue. We are paying the price of giving that status. We need to do something about the status difference. I know that work is going on and that there is much more prominence now for apprenticeships, but we need to really focus our career guidance on the ability, interest and natural direction that a student would go and try to encourage them not to go for the status things. If one becomes an industrial electrician, one's skill level would match that of some people with a PhD in modern electronics. We need to sell these apprenticeships in such a way that people realise they are very valuable.

Is é an rud deiridh ná an cheist a d'ardaigh mé go minic cheana. Tá Acht na dTeangacha Oifigiúla (Leasú) 2021 gafa tríd an Oireachtas agus tá sé ina dhlí anois. Tá sé ráite go mbeidh 20% den tseirbhís phoiblí earcaithe de dhaoine a mbeidh sé ar a gcumas oibriú trí Ghaeilge agus trí Bhéarla ach ní léir dom go bhfuil aon phlean ag an earnáil oideachais tríú leibhéil, ag an gcomhairle, ag an Údarás um Ard-Oideachas ná ag Roinn an Aire, faoin gcaoi a gcuirfear chuige le cinntiú go mbeidh na daoine ar fáil agus soláthar daoine ar fáil leis na seirbhísí seo a chur ar fáil. Is é seo cuid den rud a tharlaíonn sa Stát seo. Déantar cinneadh istigh anseo ach ní dhéanann an córas cur chuige comhtháite a chur le chéile le déanamh cinnte go ndéantar freastal ar mhianta an Oireachtais. Bheadh súil agam go dtabharfaí faoi sin láithreach mar níl sé ach seacht mbliana go leith go dtí go mbeimid ag 2030, an spriocdháta. Níl baol ar bith, i láthair na huaire, go sroichfimid é mura ndéanaimid gníomh láithreach.

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