Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister of State and the Minister on their leadership of what will be a new and exciting Department. It is important that each element of this new Department is given its rightful consideration and that some parts of it do not overly determine the approach to others. Science is a part of the new Department but, as has been eloquently said, it should not determine all of the other parts. The fact that science is a focus of this Ministry should not mean that we are only talking about the scientific realm when we talk about innovation, research or education. I am sure that is not the intent. I hope that the intent relates to further and higher education in its fullest sense.

This Department is about setting out ambition, imagination, possibilities for the nation's future and what might happen, including ways to face the challenges we are now facing, such as the coronavirus, climate change and the achievement of sustainable development goals. Many universities and other research institutions are working in that area. I recognise, in particular, the Irish Research Council, which is doing important work through the joined-up thinking that is required by the sustainable development goals and other aims. We must consider how we shape the future and become agents of the future. We must ensure that new minds bring their ideas to play, that new ideas emerge and that we have creativity in our nation. That is important, and is what this Department can and should do.

There are real issues that need to be tackled. The underfunding of the university sector has been talked about. Mr. Thomas Estermann of the European University Association has spoken about the fact that, in 2017, Ireland was only giving half the amount of GDP to universities that it had been in 2012. We have been going downwards and there has been a decrease in overall funding. There has been a 40% reduction in the amount of money going into the system for each individual student. That is an indictment of our performance and a massive challenge that we face.

I agree with Senator Hoey that the Department must speak to the Irish Second-Level Students' Union, the new students who are coming in. That is important. The Department will also need to speak to the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection and others. We must ensure that education is presented as an option and opportunity to every person of every age when they reach a new chapter in their lives. A person may be unemployed or returning to the workforce after a period of caring and education must be an option for such people. There has been an emphasis on work first, and employment always being the option of first resort. We must provide education first. Sometimes putting literacy first can be the best option. That might happen through literacy training or the excellent work that is happening in education and training bodies and in other courses. We should never set the limit of ambition for an individual. Someone who is unemployed and accessing State support should have an option of pursuing a primary degree or master's degree as a part of his or her career plan. It is important that we have routes into education from all sources.

We also must ensure those working in education do not face precariousness and poverty. I launched a report by TASC, Living with Uncertainty, and many of its case studies are of people working in higher education whose conditions are very insecure.It is bad for the families who are affected but, crucially, it is also bad for academic freedom and ideas. If people are on temporary contracts and in insecure employment, they are not able to dive in and do the kind of meaningful, challenging work that we need our universities to do. They will be unable to give us the ideas and new research that us politicians need to face challenges. That is important. The humanities in a wider sense, including social, political, philosophical and artistic pursuits, are a part of what we need and must be fundamental to our vision for higher education in Ireland.

Let us redefine "innovation". The Minister of State has heard that the word raises concerns because people start up companies that come and go and are sold on in a few years. Innovation needs to be about transformation. It might apply to a company that has existed for 20 years, changes and transforms what it does. Within innovation, we need to consider public public partnership. Memorandums of understanding exist for how to do public private partnerships but there are no equivalents for public-public partnerships. I spoke to the former Minister of State, Mary Mitchell O'Connor, who did very good work on gender equality in the Athena SWAN charter, which the new Minister of State will inherit. We need public public partnerships with other public universities in other places in the world on research that is happening in public bodies. Public public partnership is an untapped reservoir on which we could lead. I encourage the Minister of State to grasp that opportunity.