Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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22. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to deal with the funding and quality issues in the universities and institutes of technology; and his further plans to develop a strategy document for the third level sector. [35410/16]

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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The issue is one of considerable importance. It relates not only to the funding and quality issues in our universities but to the lack of a plan from Government for third level, which is of deep concern to many within the sector. It is of deep concern to my party because we believe, with all the challenges the nation is facing, if we have a properly funded, properly developed and high-quality third level education system, we can achieve great things.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I agree with Deputy Byrne. This is a major priority for me. The national strategy for higher education to 2030, which dates back to the Hunt report, sets out a very ambitious agenda that aims to improve significantly the performance of Ireland's higher education system with regard to quality, breadth of participation, attainment levels and the establishment of a sustainable and equitable funding model. The expert group on funding for higher education, under the chairmanship of Peter Cassells, was established to develop a strategy for funding the third level sector. The report was published in July and is now with the Joint Committee on Education and Skills. I look forward to working with the committee to work out a viable, long-term funding model that we can all support.

While Cassells deals with the medium and long-term funding needs, we also have to consider the immediate challenges. In that context I am pleased that we placed a particular focus on this area in budget 2017 and I secured additional funding for the sector for the first time in about eight years. Higher education is a particular focus.  It attracted €36 million in 2017. It significantly achieved a change in that the demographic increase has been built into the Estimates for the coming year. An additional €160 million over the next three years has already been committed to. This will allow the sector to keep pace with demographic increases. It also has very targeted initiatives in areas such as disadvantage, skills, research and flexible learning. Among those who will benefit from the additional third level funding being made available are students from disadvantaged backgrounds, lone parents and Travellers.

In budget 2017, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and I announced a policy review with the aim of designing and implementing a sustainable and predictable multi-annual funding model for higher and further education and training involving increased employer and Exchequer contributions from 2018. This review will be undertaken as part of the overall response to meeting the anticipated skills needs in the economy over the coming years in line with the national skills strategy. The review will include an analysis of the case for enhanced investment in higher and further education.  In this context, it will identify key elements of the new funding model and the expected impacts, including those on employers. The review will include consultation with stakeholders. It will be published by the end of April 2017 and will complement the ongoing work by the Oireachtas committee on the Cassells report. 

The sector has proved itself to be flexible and dynamic over the recent period and has continued to offer high-quality programmes and to undertake world-class research. Surveys of both students and employers have confirmed high levels of satisfaction with the system. Inevitably, concerns are being expressed about the capacity of the higher education system to sustain quality as demographic and funding pressures grow. That is why we are undertaking this work.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister. The truth is that it is nothing short of remarkable that, aside from the Cassells report in recent times, there is very little there from the Minister's Department in terms of third level. The Minister mentioned the Hunt report and the strategy subsequent to it in 2013. The truth is we are in a completely different space. Our institutes of technology are on the record now as never having been under so much pressure. They are in severe crisis mode. Our universities are dropping down the rankings, which have great importance.

The Action Plan for Education that the Minister published for his Department has little or nothing about third level education in it. It is a shocking gap. The Minister has put out a consultation for a new plan for 2017. He Minister should rewrite the existing plan to account for the shocking gap that somehow happened when this report was published. In the entirety of the action plan, there are two lines devoted to both the crisis in higher level funding and the Cassells report. The Cassells report is not simply about the choices. The choices are listed there. We are debating them in the Joint Committee on Education and Skills and I look forward to the Minister's view when his party comes to a decision. My party is having similar discussions at the moment. The truth is there is a lot more in the Cassells report. There is the immediate funding gap. What was said to us about the Cassells report only last week at the committee was that part of the issue with rankings is that the Government needs to be seen to be behind the third level sector. It seems to be the case that the perception is the Government is not supporting the third level sector. What can the Minister do to counteract that?

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I roundly reject what the Deputy is saying. The action plan is peppered with actions for higher and further education such as improving the quality of learning and teaching and investing in the sector. We delivered that in the budget. We have looked at the whole area of rolling out the Grangegorman project. We have looked at it right through every area we have identified: quality of teaching, investment in resources and improvement right across the system. We have a systems performance process in respect of higher and further education, which will be published shortly. It will review the last period and look to the future.

I agree with the Deputy that our ambitions as a country are tied up with our investment in higher and further education. That is why we have committed that by April we will have an investment plan that looks to both employers and the State to roll it out in the medium term. We share responsibilities as part of the Oireachtas for getting a long-term funding model. We face a situation where there will be a projected 30% increase in higher education enrolment. We have committed to rolling out apprenticeships, which are a very important complement to our higher education focus. It is one of the strengths of our institutes of technology that they combine traditional apprenticeships with other more applied research and higher level skills. We want to protect that in the technological university project that is under way. I reject the idea that this is not central to what we are doing. It is central to it. We will be acting urgently in this area.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister mentioned that Grangegorman is in the action plan. It is there but there is very little else about capital spending in the third level sector. It is hardly mentioned at all. There is no mention of the core expenditure per student being down by so much in the action plan. What proves the point I make is that when it came to the budget and proper, significant political pressure from this side of the House on third level funding, all of a sudden there was a plan for third level funding in the budget. It is a deficient plan. We say there is not enough money but the plan is there and we want to see the details of it. I am not entirely satisfied with how the Minister has proposed to allocate the funding for the third level sector. It is something I intend to write to him about. We had understood that, apart from the postgraduate funding, the majority of that money would be going into the Higher Education Authority's system for allocating funding, and we think that should happen.

We must get to grips with the reality. The Minister has referred to flexibility. What he means is that classes have become significantly larger and teaching staff numbers have reduced significantly. That is the nature of the flexibility, but that is not good for students or the country.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I ask the Deputy to consider what we are doing. We are seeking to act across the entire perspective, including upskilling not only those going in to college, but those who need further education and life-long learners as well. We are investing in apprenticeships and improving the quality of methodology of learning within our higher and further education sectors. We are improving access for pupils who come to the sector with a disadvantage. We are increasing the investment in research in order that we use our education sector to trigger all of the improvements we can make throughout our community.

We are making this an important priority but we need to look afresh at the funding models. I do not agree that the funding model which has been in place forever should be left unaltered. We need to examine it to see whether it is fit for purpose. That is what we are doing as part of the review. The review will be available in April and it will inform our investment strategy for 2018 and 2019. We are committed to this area. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has been clear, and the Minister and I are committed to investment in this sector.