Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I thank the House for this invitation to address it on the subject of the Government's commitment to funding for third level education and the reform of medical education. There have been significant recent announcements on these fronts and I am glad of the opportunity to exchange views with Senators on the direction we are taking. I propose to outline these developments in some detail for Members of the House and to set them in the context of broader Government strategy.

As Senators are well aware, higher education in Ireland has come through a period of major expansion. It has transformed from an elite sector of less than 20,000 students in the mid-1960s to a system that now caters for over 130,000 students and a majority of school leavers each year.

More than 30,000 new third level places have been created since this Government took office in 1997. Overall investment in the sector per annum has more than doubled over that period. This now stands at €1.7 billion in 2006.

The major expansion of higher education, through the development of the institutes of technology and the major growth in participation rates, has been an extremely important factor in our economic success over recent years. Indeed, the commitment of successive Governments over many years to invest in education at first, second and third levels has been widely recognised as an extremely far-sighted contribution to our modern economic and social status.

In seeking to develop future competitive strengths in the global knowledge era, similar vision and an even more determined approach to investment in our skills, creativity and innovation capacity are now required. The Government's strategic ambition for Ireland is to continue to develop as a world-leading knowledge economy. To achieve that, and to enjoy the social dividends that flow from it, we need to produce quality skilled graduates at third level and quality researchers at fourth level who can serve the high-value needs of the emerging sectors of the economy.

The independent review of lreland's higher education system conducted by the OECD during 2004 had identified the need for change and development in the sector if it was to contribute effectively to these broad national goals. The Government has endorsed this strategic agenda for change in the sector and the need to align this with policies for investment and funding. Ireland's successful transition from being a technology-importing, low-cost economy to a technology-based, innovation economy depends critically on progress on this front.

In my pursuit of these broader national objectives, investment in higher education has been a major policy priority. When I set out my approach to a programme of development and change in higher education in April 2005, I announced my intention to establish a strategic innovation fund to drive the transformation of the sector by promoting collaboration and change. I am delighted that budget 2006 enabled this multiannual fund to become a reality with an allocation of €300 million over the next five years. Significantly, this was announced as part of a wider additional investment package for higher education of €1.2 billion. This funding will serve to transform higher education in a number of ways. It will allow high priority infrastructural projects to be addressed, drive the reform and change agenda at an institutional level and promote collaboration and change in pursuit of system wide excellence.

Achieving the desired change is a complex and challenging task. I intend to make the strategic innovation fund available to higher education institutions to support the following key objectives: incentivise and reward internal restructuring and rationalisation efforts; provide for improved performance management systems; meet staff training and support requirements associated with the reform of structures and the implementation of new processes; implement improved management information systems; introduce teaching and learning reforms, including enhanced teaching methods, programme restructuring, modularisation and e-learning; support quality improvement initiatives aimed at excellence; and promote access, transfer and progression and incentivise stronger interinstitutional collaboration in the development and delivery of programmes.

A major emphasis of the fund is the promotion of inter-institutional collaboration in building world class strength within the Irish system. The quality of higher education in Ireland must be measured against the highest standards across the world. The emphasis being placed on promoting collaboration through this fund is deliberate. Collectively, our higher education institutions represent a very valuable national resource. The full potential of that resource can only be achieved through a systemwide approach that builds on our strengths.

Awards under the fund will be made on the basis of a competitive call for proposals. The Higher Education Authority has been asked to develop the detailed criteria for the fund with a view to making an early call for proposals. An international panel of experts will be convened to consider the proposals submitted and to make objective recommendations on funding awards. An initial €15 million will be available this year for what is essentially a start-up period. This will grow to €60 million in 2007 and to €75 million per annum in each of 2008, 2009 and 2010.

In framing proposals, there will be a requirement on institutions to contribute funds from their own resources to copper fasten the reform efforts. This is important in ensuring that the fund can leverage fundamental change by promoting new thinking and new priorities in the use of existing resources. The overall objective is to achieve new levels of performance at third level and, building on this, to develop a fourth-level system of research that can be benchmarked against the highest international standards.

In pursuing these objectives, continuing investment in the basic physical facilities on third level campuses around the country is an essential foundation. As part of the budget day announcements, €900 million capital funding was allocated for higher education projects as part of my five year envelope for 2006 to 2010. This will allow me to deal with a number of key projects in universities and institutes of technology identified as part of the needs assessment and prioritisation exercise conducted by the Kelly review group for the Higher Education Authority. I have already announced a series of major projects across the country which will now be progressed either by conventional procurement or under the public private partnership initiative. A total of 53 major capital projects across the system have been earmarked for progression. A remaining balance of some €200 million will be used to deal with emerging priorities in the context of overall national strategy.

The budget announcement of a new multiannual funding package for higher education came on foot of an important 7% increase in core funding for the sector in 2006 and a 17% increase in research and development funding for this year. This Government's record of investment in research and development in higher education has been one of its outstanding achievements. The research landscape has been transformed over recent years with the establishment of the programme for research in third level institutions, PRTLI, and Science Foundation Ireland. Awards totalling more than €605 million have been made under the PRTLI for the development of basic research infrastructure across our higher education institutions. Prior to 1999, there was no dedicated programme of basic research funding in the Irish system.

It is the Government intention to continue building on this and an ambitious new national research plan is to be considered by a Cabinet committee shortly. The Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance have both indicated that investment in our intellectual capital through higher education will be a central objective of the successor national development plan now being prepared. I look forward to returning to these issues in this House as we continue to pursue these fundamentally important objectives for Ireland's future economic and social prosperity.

I want to turn to the more specific issue of reform in medical education and training, which, as members are aware, was the subject of two landmark reports jointly published by the Tánaiste and I last week, namely, the Report of the Working Group on Undergraduate Medical Education and Training, chaired by Professor Pat Fottrell and the Report of the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training group, chaired by Dr. Jane Buttimer. The two reports represent the most significant review of medical education and training ever undertaken in Ireland. They make a series of major recommendations across the continuum of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education and training, spanning the education and health systems in a variety of delivery settings. These are aimed at responding to the needs of a changing health system and ensuring that medical education in Ireland is sufficiently resourced and developed to maintain our reputation for producing quality doctors in the future.

In joining the Tánaiste to launch the reports, I was particularly pleased that the Government is already in a position to respond to the reports' complex range of recommendations. The Government has approved a €200 million multiannual programme of investment in medical education that will more than double the number of places, provide an additional access route for entry to medical education, facilitate significant curriculum reform and provide for improvements in the provision of clinical training.

Specifically, it is now intended to increase the annual number of undergraduate places for Irish and EU students from 305 to 485 and to introduce a separate graduate entry stream to medical education which will provide 240 additional places per annum. These increases will be phased in over a four-year period, commencing this autumn when an additional 70 undergraduate places will be provided. A further 40 places will be provided in 2007 and 35 in each of 2008 and 2009. The Higher Education Authority will begin immediate consultations with existing medical schools on the provision of the additional undergraduate places.

The authority will also issue a competitive call for proposals to provide the new graduate entry programme, with a view to the additional places being provided on this programme from 2007. The provision of a graduate entry stream is an important development in reducing pressures on aspiring medical students who until now have effectively had one chance of entry based on their leaving certificate performance. The high points pressures associated with this has had a negative knock-on impact on the senior cycle school experience for many students. Graduate entry, which will be open to graduates of all disciplines, will allow students to make a decision to enter medicine at a more mature age and should result in a more diverse range of entrants into the profession. The Higher Education Authority will now establish an expert group to develop a standardised test that, drawing on best international practice, will evaluate aptitude and suitability for entry to the graduate programme. This selection test will be in place for 2007.

In the interests of alleviating the enormous pressures of high CAO points requirements, the Fottrell report recommended that leaving certificate results should no longer be the sole selection criterion for undergraduate entry. It proposes that all students with 450 leaving certificate points be considered for selection on the basis of a separate aptitude test. I am a keen supporter of the fairness and objectivity of the points system but I recognise that the pressures on students wishing to study medicine in terms of achieving an almost perfect leaving certificate are excessive and unnecessary. For that reason, I am anxious to explore the detailed options with regard to a dual selection process. There is a need, however, to ensure that the revised system will adequately reward strong academic performance, provide an appropriate evaluation of aptitude and suitability for a career in medicine and will retain public confidence in its objectivity and fairness.

I have asked the HEA expert group to bring forward more detailed proposals on the proposed new undergraduate selection system, to devise an appropriate second selection test for use at undergraduate level and to advise on the logistics of its administration. The expert group is to report to me by summer 2006 in order to allow a clear signal of any proposed changes to be given to the cohort of students entering the senior cycle, that is, those going into fifth year in September 2006. To allow adequate notice to students, the new entry procedures for undergraduate medical education will not be introduced any sooner than September 2008.

The Fottrell report lays strong emphasis on the need for curriculum reform, with a greater emphasis on small group interaction, problem-based learning approaches and interdisciplinary contact. It is also critical that clinical placements for students provide a highly-effective learning experience. These are essential elements of the reforms and investment on which we are now embarking. I have allocated an additional €4 million in 2006 to commence investment in curriculum improvements, clinical training and the provision of 70 additional places this year.

Unprecedented investment is now being made in our higher education system in pursuit of the development of the knowledge base on which Ireland's growth strategy, and the economic and social benefits that will flow from that, depends. Supporting our higher education institutions is a major policy priority. The targeted investments that this Government is now making in the higher education infrastructure, in promoting excellence through system wide collaboration and change, in widening access and in creating a vibrant fourth level sector are key long-term investments in Ireland's future. I know that Seanad Éireann endorses the objectives we are pursuing.