Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We would not want to inhibit local solutions with regard to education provision. My concern is that higher and further education is very valuable and that lots of money can be made from it. We often find that organisations and companies follow the money. With amendment No. 20, as with No. 10, we sought to explicitly recognise the public nature of the higher education system, which should play a role in determining how we fund this sector. The Minister knows that we need more places on courses that are in high demand but we need them within the colleges and institutes of further education. I appreciate that Deputy Harris may not always be the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and may go on to higher things. I will not call it the easy way out but we should not go down a path of providing courses privately rather than providing proper core funding for our third level sector.

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