Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing this Topical Issue.

The school of tourism of Letterkenny Institute of Technology, LYIT, is currently located in Killybegs, in what was formerly the Cert training college. The college has been providing high quality training in the catering and hospitality industry for over 40 years and many students have won international awards over the years for the standard of their expertise in the cookery field. In recent years, the Cert school amalgamated with LYIT and this it was understood would secure the future of the college and ensure growth into the future. Unfortunately this has not come to pass.

Currently, there are approximately 180 students at the Killybegs campus. The college not only provides for school leavers through the CAO system, but also has a large cohort of part-time adult learners who are reskilling themselves and hope to participate in the tourism sector. The campus in Killybegs also provides training in the renewable energy sector, with the first training tower of its kind in the country located on site. This provides training for maintenance personnel in the wind energy sector. A number of companies have also looked at the college with a view to using the facilities as a training location.

Killybegs is the largest fishing port in the country and is also involved in the oil and gas exploration sector and in the importation of wind turbines for the renewables industry. The high level group report on job creation in Killybegs, launched by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine in Killybegs in June 2011, envisages a vital role for the tourism college in the future development of the town and surrounding area. A number of key actions in the report will help the development of the whole of the south west of Donegal if brought to fruition, such as the development of a seafood innovation hub, the development and consolidation of the LYIT school of tourism as a key resource for the region and the establishment of Killybegs as a centre of excellence for the green economy.

At the moment, the LYIT board is drafting a five-year financial plan for the institute and I believe it is considering relocating the school of tourism to the Letterkenny campus. This will seriously undermine the viability of the Killybegs campus of LYIT. There is a serious urgency with regard to this situation, because the plan is due to be delivered to the Higher Education Authority before the summer. This could signal the end of the delivery of tourism courses in Killybegs. While everyone understands there is a need for education and training to be cost effective, closing the Killybegs campus will be a severe setback for the whole of south-west Donegal with the withdrawal of a vital education resource. It will also make the continuation of the adult learner facilities in Killybegs unviable and remove a resource for many under skilled and unemployed workers to improve their educational attainment and contribute to the growth of a viable tourism sector, which because of Government policy is one of the only options available in Donegal for job growth.

The school of tourism is the lynchpin that is keeping the rest of the facilities at the Killybegs campus going and if it is removed it will reduce the viability of the entire campus.

LYIT might have financial difficulties - recovering student debt is probably one of its biggest problems - but the removal of the school of tourism from Killybegs will ultimately not solve them. It would hamper the recovery and development of a large part of County Donegal. It would bring an end to a significant tradition that has been in the hospitality and tourism industry for many years. Surely LYIT has a role in delivering and participating in the development of the entire region. The Killybegs campus should be seen as having a role as part of that remit. It should be supported so that it can develop the tourism, food and renewable energy sectors for the future of everyone in the north west. I call on the Minister of State to ensure the Killybegs campus continues to play a full part in that effort.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Pringle for raising this issue. As he will be aware, the tourism college in Killybegs is a school of Letterkenny Institute of Technology, LYIT, which is an autonomous statutory body. The management of the college is the responsibility of the governing body and the president of LYIT. The Department allocates recurrent funding to the Higher Education Authority, HEA, for direct disbursement to HEA institutions including LYIT. The HEA allocates this grant to institutions for free fees, core grant funding and other specific earmarked initiatives. The HEA uses a recurrent grant allocation model to determine the amount of core funding provided to each institution. It is then a matter for the institution to determine how this funding is allocated internally and locally.

All higher education institutions are facing real challenges to cope with declining State budgets and increasing student populations. Institutions must reduce staff numbers in line with the employment control framework for the sector. Core staff numbers in higher education institutions were reduced by 9% between December 2008 and December 2011. Overall full-time student numbers increased by 12% during the same period. Staff numbers had reduced by a further 1.5% at the end of 2012. Further reductions will be required. It is a matter for each institution to work within a balanced budget and to achieve best value for money. The HEA has committed to working with institutions that face particular financial pressures in the coming year. The need for an agreed strategy to ensure they can continue to meet the needs of students, employers and other stakeholders in their regions is of paramount importance.

I understand the HEA has requested a financial plan from LYIT covering the next three years, indicating the strategy to be used to address financial issues at the institute. This plan has not yet been received by the Department. There has been no indication of any specific proposals concerning the future of the Killybegs campus. The HEA is undertaking a study on the sustainability of the current funding system for higher education. An initial report has been published. This report makes it clear that immediate work is required to prepare for a longer-term approach to a system that can be maintained through a sustainable funding base. Such a system should be able to address the continued expansion of the sector while protecting quality of education. The HEA is continuing its work in this area. It will advise the Department further as this work progresses. The report will help inform decision-making on the future funding of the sector.

The Deputy will be familiar with a document, Towards a Future Higher Education Landscape, that was published by the HEA last year after inviting submissions from institutions and commissioning expert analyses with a view to giving the Minister formal advice on an outline future configuration of the higher education system. That advice is under consideration. The HEA has advised on the development of regional clusters of higher education institutions which will allow programmes of teaching and learning to be better planned and co-ordinated, resources to be used more efficiently and more flexible student pathways and better progression opportunities to be put in place. Regional clusters will build on the explicit value placed on collaboration between Irish higher education institutions in recent years. They will create more stable and permanent arrangements between institutions within regions. Negotiated agreements between institutions within a cluster will allow for the elimination of unnecessary duplication of provision and provide a more coherent offering to students in the region with good pathways into and between institutions.

Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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I would like to be able to thank the Minister of State for his response, but I do not think it did anything to alleviate the concerns I have expressed. The one thing I can probably take from the answer is the reference to the sustainability study that is being carried out by the HEA. It is examining how will this country's third level institutions will be funded in the future. On that basis alone, I do not think any college should make a decision now that will affect the future of any campus under its control. For that reason, LYIT should be encouraged or told to sustain its current provision of education at Killybegs while the outcome of the HEA's study is awaited. We can deal with the report when the time comes. It is vitally important for the recovery of large parts of the country that these courses are retained in the areas where they have been provided for many years. The Killybegs campus can and will play a very important role in the recovery and development of south-west Donegal. It cannot do that unless the services and educational courses that are currently provided at Killybegs are maintained and a plan is put in place to ensure the campus can grow and develop. I call on the Minister of State to impress that on the HEA and the board of governors of LYIT. We need to ensure this can happen for the future.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy may be aware that there is already a significant level of co-operation between a number of institutions in the region. An alliance agreement between Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Letterkenny Institute of Technology and the Institute of Technology, Sligo was signed in July 2012. It commits the partners to the development of significant and meaningful collaborations on a comprehensive range of activities. I hope the co-operation that is under way will lead to a far more fruitful use of scarce State resources and offer students a number of different and interesting educational options. I remind the Deputy that all higher education institutions, including LYIT, are responsible for the internal allocation of the funding provided to them by the HEA. Decisions on the future funding of the tourism college in Killybegs will ultimately rest with the governing body of LYIT.