Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I also welcome this legislation on behalf of the Fine Gael group. We warmly embrace the concepts outlined in the legislation because of what they do for the institutes. It is important to realise that for the first time we have a recognition of the importance of the institutes vis-À-vis the universities. Under this legislation, they will be on a par with the universities and operate under the umbrella of the HEA. I hope they will be treated equally with regard to budgetary provision.

The most important provision in the Bill is the fact that the institutes of technology sector will no longer be the Cinderella of higher education, as it was in the past. Very often the universities had a strong arm, the ear of the Minister for Education and Science and managed to obtain a disproportionately higher level of funding compared with the institutes of technology. This meant that the institutes were restricted to a degree in their operation and their flexibility was often curtailed.

I welcome the fact that during the debate in the other House, the Minister of State accepted an amendment concerning people with disabilities. When one looks at the detail regarding the allocation of funding for people with disabilities at university level and at institute of technology level, the grant for the former sector was ten times greater than that for the latter, at €500,000 as against €50,000. It is important that the Minister of State agreed to incorporate the amendment into the Bill. The Bill as originally drafted made reference to the needs of those who are "economically or socially disadvantaged" but left out those with disabilities.

I welcome the fact that the Minister of State has agreed to accept the inclusion of people with disabilities and hope the follow-up to that will be a greater allocation of funding to the institutes to make provisions for such people. When one looks at the variation that applied between one institute and another, it is clear that some institutes were unable to respond to the needs of people with disabilities. For example, the figure for the percentage of students with disabililities was 0.5% in the Cork Institute of Technology compared with 2.5% in the Institute of Technology, Tralee. The latter had the best record of all the regional technical institutes in that respect. Therein lies a story. I hope this legislation will present an opportunity to the colleges to respond in a positive way to the need for such provision.

The Minister of State referred to the question of the use of the title of director or president of an institute and went on to refer to the title of president of an institute. Will she give institutes an option to adopt the title of president of an institute rather than that of director? The title of president would improve the position for identification purposes. In that respect, it would put third level institutions, whether institutes of technology or universities, on an equal par. It would also level the playing pitch in terms of the title of the head of a university or of an institute. Such a change of title would be an important recognition for institutes.

The Bill is the most important legislation affecting the institute sector since the Region Technical Colleges Act 1992. It represents the culmination of a long process over three years, which began with the publication of the expert working group's report on the further position and roles of institutes of the technology and continued with the 2004 OECD review on higher education policy in Ireland. Both reports recommended many of the measures already incorporated in this legislation. It is welcome that the Minister adopted many of the recommendations in those two reports.

The legislation proposes that the Higher Education Authority should have responsibility for universities and institutes of technology. This should be the basis for the development of a more coherent national higher education policy. It is critical that we draw on the reserves and strengths of all higher education bodies if the full potential of higher education is to be realised at regional and national level.

The regional institutes have played an important role in contributing to the development of employment, industry and social structure. I refer particularly to the institutes in Galway and Athlone and to the extension of the institute in Galway to incorporate education provision in Mayo, with the institute now known as the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology. I welcome the development announced by the Minister of State of the extension of the Letterkenny Institute of Technology to include a college in Killybegs. It is a clear indication that the institutes have an important role to play in the future development of industry in those areas. This is particularly important in Donegal which has suffered significant job losses in the past two years. I am sure that not only the institute in Letterkenny but that the college in Killybegs can support the attraction of industry to that county, which has been an employment blackspot in recent years.

Before universities recognised their potential in this area, the institute in Galway, which was known initially as the Galway Regional Technical College, developed the first link between industry and education. That college developed such co-operation quietly and successfully over the years. Hence, today Galway is the hub of many specialised industries and has given great employment in specialised areas, particularly the medical care area. The university in Galway has also supported and developed that link. There has been great co-operation between the institute and the university in Galway for the continuing development of such industry in Galway, which has given great employment.

Institutes of technology have also played an important role in research and development in social areas of disadvantaged. Such work has assisted industrialists, the Government in terms of developing social policies that could and should be implemented, the education sector in terms of educational needs, and other areas.

The recently published strategy for science, technology and innovation recognised the importance of the institutes of technology in working with industry. That strategy will ensure the continuation of the work undertaken in this area by many institutes in the past. It is important such co-operation is recognised and given greater emphasis in this strategy. In recent years many directors of the institutes were uncertain as to their role in and recognition of this work. Like the universities, although to a lesser extent, the budget they were given was often restricted. The strategy under this legislation will improve matters compared to the position in the past and it will give greater impetus to the role of institutes in engaging in research and development.

A major difficulty is the low proportion of mature students who can access third level education. The OECD report clearly identifies our dismal response in this respect. I hope the new structure will increase flexibility in the governance of the institutes to allow them to have a far greater intake of mature students which would clearly advantage industry and social development in any region. Our past record in this respect has been dismal. I hope the new structure will redress this problem.

Many of the institutes are already co-operating with local industries in the area of applied research and technology. For example, Athlone Institute of Technology is central to the promotion of economic and industrial development in Athlone. It is a process that delivers national benefits through employment and industrial output and engages with industry through the external services unit. Where colleges and institutes have established external service units, they have greatly benefited industry, particularly small and indigenous industries that do not have the scale of budgets to fund such expertise, management or other resources. Through the auspices of the institutes, small industries can tap into the expertise available that will lead to the development of research and development that will guide them into new markets and new marketing techniques apart from advancing their product output. I note that those involved in industries in Galway and Athlone always remark on the importance of the support they received and the success they achieved form these external units.

The number of students who dropped out of institutes was high in the past. That problem has now been largely redressed and the institutes have a higher retention rate than that of universities. That increase in the retention rate is welcome. However, it could be improved in the institute sector by the provision of a guidance counsellor service.

The Minister of State's professional experience as a guidance counsellor would indicate that there is a great need to provide guidance to students in institutes of technology. Given that so many people wish to change courses or become lost to third level education, perhaps there is a need to allow them to access it as mature students on a temporary basis. I have continuously found that guidance and the provision of an identifiable individual to whom students can relate the difficulties they are experiencing are aspects that are lacking. From first-hand experience, I realise that there are people within the structure and personnel of the institutes of technology who would be only too willing to listen to students' problems if these were brought to their attention in time. The problems could be resolved and these students retained in, rather than lost to, education. Perhaps there will be time later on to mention other difficulties when amendments are tabled on Committee and Report Stages.