Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, to the House and congratulate him on his appointment. I understand he will be the only Minister of State in the new Department and that the principal Minister will be Deputy Simon Harris.

The primary purpose of this Bill is to establish a new Department of further and higher education, research, innovation and science. I will focus on education, research, innovation and science rather than the nuts and bolts of running the Department. I understand the Department has no building or office so these are early days. The previous Government set a precedent when it established the new Department of Rural and Community Development and, by golly, did the Minister, Deputy Michael Ring, make a run for it and succeed. If the Minister and Minister of State are to learn anything, I suggest the two of them take an afternoon off to speak to Deputy Ring because he brought energy, commitment and enthusiasm to that position and got things over the line regardless of who attempted to detract from his ambition. I admire him for that. I might not always agree with his politics but one thing he did was bring energy and enthusiasm to a difficult situation in establishing a new Department. The Minister of State is on the same trajectory and facing the same challenge. I wish him well in that.

When nominating the Members of the Government in Dáil Éireann on 27 June 2020, the Taoiseach announced the establishment of a new Department responsible for a range of issues, including further and higher education, research, innovation and science and appointed Deputy Harris as Minister. Someone mentioned ambition and I have no doubt the Minister, Deputy Harris, and the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, are ambitious on many fronts. I hope they apply to their roles the same vigour, determination and ambition they have applied in their political careers and on behalf of their own constituents. I have no doubt they will do so.If any team were to work together well and be ambitious, it is these two. We should be looking out for them and I wish them well. There was a similar situation for Deputy Ring and I suggest the Minister of State might talk to him.

When one looks at the programme for Government, one sees recurring themes of educational opportunity, further and higher education, research in science and green technologies. We always have to have green technologies in everything now. I support the green movement but suddenly all the Ministers who come in here and all the speakers on the Government side pepper everything with "green". There is a new-found interest in green technologies. I agree and it is not you versus us. We are all in this together. I am glad to see that the Minister of State is on message and I am conscious of the Green Party Senator on my right. Long may that continue because it is an important message and we should not apologise about green technologies and green innovation.

As someone who sits on the agricultural panel, I would like to see a great emphasis on agricultural food sciences and education and learning. I will take from my book: I believe baker is as noble a profession as stockbroker. I would like to see more engagement, particularly in the agricultural sector, in relation to apprenticeships for farming. We know that in the dairy sector, the horticultural sector and the forestry sector we cannot get labour. People do not have the necessary skills and training. The Minister of State must not forget apprenticeships and the value of young people who, for whatever reason, fell out of the mainstream education structures at 14, 15 or 16. They are important. They too are our future and it is not all about postgraduate education and further innovation for those people. Everyone must be in this together. Everyone must be given equal access to training and education at whatever level best suits him or her. That has to be the key message which I would like the Minister of State to bring to the fore in his work. When we use keywords like "science", "research" and "innovation", we have to talk about the exciting potential of that but also bringing people along at their level and helping them to develop their potential and play their meaningful part, particularly given the challenges that will face this economy post Brexit and post Covid-19.

As a country we need to build a strong foundation and capacity in the critical four Cs: collaboration, critical thinking, communication and creativity. Each of them applies to real world challenges. We must ground our policy in how we can further develop the sciences, technology, engineering and maths, which we commonly call STEM education. By expanding science and innovation learning, we will be putting students on a track, be it slow, medium or fast, to success and to be able to embrace and take on board the challenges that face us going forward. I have mentioned STEM and that is important because we know that STEM empowers individuals with skills to succeed. We know that STEM increases people's understanding of and ability to cope with complex technologies in this world. We know that STEM is intended to be a leader in terms of innovation and is necessary to sustain our economy and surmount the challenges our country faces. This innovation and science literacy depends on solid knowledge and that is important. STEM, as the Minister of State mentioned in his presentation, plays an important part of that. The global economy is changing and we have to be fit for it. That means upskilling and training our people to face those challenges ahead. STEM skills and qualifications are considered essential for Ireland’s productivity going forward.

The Minister of State mentioned Science Foundation Ireland. That is important and the collaboration it has with his Department is important. Also important is sustainable finance for our universities, which have been starved of cash for years and years. We now find the great challenges that universities have. Universities are more than just learning. They are about synergies, collaboration with the private sector and giving back. I know somebody who was involved in an on-campus company in Trinity College Dublin and established a very successful business in Sandyford Industrial Estate. They gave back, not only support and mentoring, but also finance to Trinity. The company became so big that the person in question had to make the biggest decision any entrepreneur can make, to let go and bring bigger investment, and it is now successful in many parts of the globe.That is success. That is the sort of innovation, education and encouragement we want in our universities.

I wish the Minister, Deputy Harris, well. There are enormous challenges in this area, but we should never forget the importance of equal access to education, equality around education and equality of opportunity. Everyone is entitled to that and must be supported in it. As I said, there are different levels and stages in education. I hope the Minister will always be mindful of that and that he will encourage all of them. More important, I hope he recognises the knock-on effect of education on enterprise and how we as a country, and the island of Ireland, can benefit from this technology, education and innovation.