Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)

I wish the Minister the very best of luck. I welcome the opportunity to contribute to today’s debate on the power of higher education, research and skills as economic enablers in a changing world. I echo what previous speakers have said about dropping further education. It is such a valuable part of that Department and I have seen at first hand how further education has changed lives in the communities in which I have lived and worked for a number of years.

Yesterday, the Minister delivered his keynote speech at the Irish Universities Association's Future of Ireland seminar. He presented a vision that was ambitious and encouraging, where Ireland led on innovation, skills and research in a volatile global landscape, but can we see concrete plans for how this will happen in a sector that has struggled for a number of years? The Minister spoke about AI, semiconductors and life sciences and rightly highlighted the ground-breaking work happening in our universities, such as Professor Conor Ryan’s AI-designed silicon chip at UL, which is an excellent example of the wonderful work that takes place in our universities. The Minister referenced Funding the Future but there is a €307 million annual shortfall in core higher education funding. That gap is not new and was not a surprise to the Minister upon assuming his new role but is something we need to get on top of. It has a trickle-down effect on every single thing that happens in our universities. I look forward to seeing how the Minister will tackle that.

Regarding the disconnect between ambition and implementation when we talk about students, the Minister spoke very passionately about the future talent pipelines. Having worked in the school completion programme and the bachelor of education course in DCU, I can say that a significant amount of pressure is being placed on students. I will speak about those students I lectured on the bachelor of education course. They worked very long hours on the course, travelled home, worked at the weekend and tried to complete the volume of work they needed to do. Anybody here who has worked in third level education will know that there is a significant amount of work that needs to be done but because of the student contribution and the high cost of accommodation, students have no other option than to work at the weekend.

I have been contacted by a number of people about the hidden costs that are not covered when they are on placements. I would love to see how this can be resolved for those students. I am talking about student teachers and student nurses. One student explained her difficult situation to me. We hear repeatedly about students having to buy things. This is the hidden cost of university. Having worked with young people from a disadvantaged background, I know it is not that they are unable to get there because of points, which is a whole other issue. It is that, when they are there, those costs are preventative. These students do not have anyone from whom they can get that money.

I welcome the Minister’s intent to revive the programme for research in third level institutions, PRTLI. This was last looked at over a decade ago. It is about funding; nearly everything is. I welcome making Ireland a destination for global researchers and talent. Education here is excellent but we are losing PhD students and other students to other countries because they are cannot afford to stay here. The cost of university here is significantly higher than in a number of other European countries. There are students who will take a course in another language in another country and we will lose them. They will leave for their undergraduate education and it will continue for postgraduate education.

Like others, I am a bit concerned about the notion of education as an economic enabler. I echo what Deputy Connolly said. Education does concern the economy, but education is about learning. It is about critical and creative thinking and ensuring we live in a society where there is empathy and where we can build social cohesion around what we want to see in our society. I remind the Minister that the focus on economic enablers is one aspect but there are many others. I do not want to lecture him but I want to put it on record that there are other reasons for education.

I acknowledge the Minister's optimism and I welcome his ambition. Again, I will talk about funding. We need to broaden access to third level education. Last week, we spoke about course for occupational therapists and speech and language therapists. I would love to see that for September. I would love to discuss the CAO system and how we are putting so much pressure on our leaving certificate students to get into third level. Could there be more spaces so that pressure is taken off at that level because enjoyment of learning in the leaving certificate is dying a death, given how there is so much pressure?

We need proper contracts for staff in universities. Precarious contracts are not acceptable to any worker and they are certainly not acceptable in any institution where we are trying to educate future generations, so I would love to see an end to that and the Minister's vision of how that would work.

We need funding for third level to ensure we make our system the best that we can.

I wish the Minister the best of luck and look forward to working with him.

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