Seanad debates

Thursday, 9 February 2012

University Rankings

 

3:00 pm

Photo of Seán SherlockSeán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)

I appreciate the points made by Senator Walsh but I do not believe there is a sense of complacency. The opposite is the case; there is a great sense of urgency and there are sleepless nights in respect of how we should address this problem. The bottom line is that one can extrapolate from the Times Higher Education system performance tables. One can delve into the criteria they apply. Criteria for measuring rankings differ from one set of rankings to another. There is no sense of complacency. The data are important and widely reported and when the reports come in we take them seriously. In fairness our work and that of previous Governments with American Chamber of Commerce Ireland stands up. When they send signals across the table we sit up and listen, as have previous Governments; if messages come from them we take note.

It is important to realise that there are many Irish people working in US companies who have had long and distinguished careers in those companies. They are very attuned to the needs as well and they have an ear with Government. In fairness, traditionally Fianna Fáil Governments have set out this approach and have been a part of the process for the science, technology and innovation programmes. This is an apolitical area.

With regard to the points made by Senator Walsh, there is a strong sense of the urgency in respect of dealing with the skills shortages. However, the Senator will acknowledge that there was an over-reliance on construction and many children went into construction studies from second level rather than software engineering or other engineering programmes and one cannot turn around that ship overnight. It is healthy for the system to have world class researchers coming from abroad. It causes us to up our game. I appreciate the points made. There is no sense of complacency; we are moving rapidly to address the deficit.

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