Frank Feighan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Recently, I was invited to launch a programme in co-operation with the Carrick-on-Shannon Education Centre and St. Angela's college and it struck me how suitable a location Carrick-on-Shannon would be for a third level centre. It would need the Government's support. The Department of Education and Skills will publish the higher education strategy shortly. The collaboration between institutes of technology, universities and higher education centres seems to be at the strategy's heart. Does the Minister of State foresee existing educational facilities in smaller towns like Carrick-on-Shannon and rural towns having a role in developing these links?

Many years ago, there were many small towns in the area, but Carrick-on-Shannon has moved from being a county town to a regional town. It is the regional centre for Boyle, Ballinamore, Drumshanbo, Mohill, Elphin and Strokestown. It has grown significantly in the past ten years due to the upper Shannon renewal scheme. The town contains many houses and apartments of quite good build, but there is also a great deal of office space that could be rented or bought cheaply, for want of a better word. The Bank of America, in the form of its subsidiary, MBNA, is in the area and there is a great deal of employment. The River Shannon is a significant tourist attraction and many people are driving across the island of Ireland to avail of the hospitality in Carrick-on-Shannon.

However, the town's hotels need an economy of scale. The town needs an educational facility to copperfasten its tourism industry. If we got hundreds of students to live in the town, it would help the region. The town and its environs boast the Landmark Hotel, the Bush Hotel, many guest houses, Kilronan Castle, Lough Rynn and Lough Key Forest Park, which is a significant centre of tourist activity. I was involved in securing up to €10 million for the park, which has gone from strength to strength and is attracting more than 160,000 visitors per year.

Carrick-on-Shannon and its surrounds have moved to being a new regional area. A Government could endorse this move with the addition of a third level facility. What is the Minister of State's opinion in this regard?

Áine Brady (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Coughlan. I thank Deputy Feighan for raising this matter on the Adjournment.

There are more than 20 publicly funded higher education institutions, seven of which are universities and 14 of which are institutes of technology. Ireland is a relatively small country and, in view of the current level of third level provision nationally, there are no plans to develop new third level institutions at this time. It should be noted that the information that is available on admission rates to higher education by county shows that County Leitrim has a relatively high rate. A national survey of new entrants to higher education carried out in 2004 and published in 2006 shows that Leitrim had an admission rate of 64.2% compared with a national rate of 55%.

As the Deputy stated, a new national strategy for higher education has been under development by a high level group under the chairmanship of Dr. Colin Hunt and comprising national and international expertise. The question of how Ireland's higher education system should be configured to best meet the challenges of the next two decades has been under consideration as part of this work. The group has completed its work and the Tánaiste will consult with colleagues on its findings in the coming weeks.

Development of a new national strategy for higher education affords a timely opportunity to review the environment for higher education and the challenges and changes impacting on the sector. The strategy will provide a vision and related set of national policy objectives for higher education over the coming 20 years and identify the operational framework for the higher education system, which will enable it to deliver these objectives.

In developing its report, the strategy group engaged in extensive consultations with stakeholders and wider national interests. A first round of consultation was completed in the summer of 2009 under which an open call for written submissions elicited a significant and valuable response. More than 100 submissions were received from institutions, educational bodies and representatives of the enterprise community as well as a number of individual personal submissions. These submissions provided valuable input on a wide range of issues and are available on the HEA website, www.hea.ie.

In addition to this first round of consultation, a series of independently facilitated discussion forums were held with members of the academic community, third and fourth level students, enterprise and business leaders, second level policy makers and teachers. Bilateral meetings with other stakeholders, including the higher education institutions, were also held.

The higher education sector has a key contribution to make to the future growth of the economy and the well-being of society. Through the development of the strategy, the Government wants to build on the many strengths of the sector in order to provide an environment where it can develop in a way that best serves the country as a whole.

I would also like to take this opportunity to point to the range of further education provision available in County Leitrim. Further education provision is designed to meet the needs of young early school leavers, provide second chance education for those who have not completed upper second level education and provide vocational education and training for labour market entrants and re-entrants. The main providers of further education programmes are the vocational education committees, VECs.

In County Leitrim in 2009, there were more than 150 participants on full-time and more than 1,250 participants on part-time further education programmes funded by the Department of Education and Skills through the VEC sector. The full-time participants included 92 post-leaving certificate, PLC, participants in the VEC. An additional 16 PLC places were allocated to Carrick-on-Shannon community school. In 2010, a funding provision of €2 million has been provided for further education programmes in County Leitrim. I thank the Deputy for affording me the opportunity to respond to the House on this matter.