Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I echo the words of welcome and congratulation to the Minister of State. This has been an uplifting, positive and welcome debate. This Chamber is normally occupied by other people and sometimes is much more adversarial. I believe that the questions of education and the establishment of this new Department should elicit a positive response.

The first words I spoke in the House today were to ask the Leader to arrange for the Minister to come here and explain what are his policies on education and its funding. I pointed out that there is a looming crisis of funding, particularly in the third level area. We are now in serious crisis mode. What has been recently announced may be an Elastoplast but unless third level education is approached in a radically different way, and unless the choices laid down in the Cassells report are addressed, the third level sector is going to be in serious financial, performance and morale crises over the next 12 months. Whereas I share the positivity about the potential for the new Department to be transformational, and I hope it is, I believe that we need to hear quickly how our third level sector will be assisted to weather the enormous crisis that is about to grab it by the throat.

Throughout education, there is a sense of drift at the moment. I wish the Minister of State and the Minister every success in getting their hands on the wheel, so to speak, and making the decisions to which Senator Cassells referred. Those decisions have to be made and there must be a sense of urgency about it. It is debilitating that everybody seems to think that there is a magic money tree that can provide funding for everything. It is nice for politicians to live in that climate.I remember being in that climate as a Minister of the Government when there seemed to be money for everything for a while. I assure you, a Chathaoirligh, that if the Central Bank had warned that Government a crisis was coming there would have been a different response. It is a matter of great regret to me personally that did not happen, but we are now in a very different situation. We are facing into what could be a world depression and a situation where money will not be available in infinite quantities. We must now look to adopting a coherent plan for the funding of third level education.

I have heard suggestions that universities are proposing to reopen with the 2 m rule in place. If it can be reduced to a 1 m rule with masks, hand cleansing and all the rest of it, and if we can safely do that, it could transform or accelerate the recovery of the university sector. I do not want to say anything negative about NPHET, because it has done its job as best it can, but I do not know whether the 2 m rule really is all that important and I would love these Houses to consider whether a 1.5 m or 1 m rule could not transform our own business.

I will finish by saying that as far as I am concerned, I wish the Minister, Deputy Harris, and the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, very well in their new endeavours. It will become apparent very quickly whether it is rhetoric rather than action and I do not, for one minute, think that whether one has a building or not is the critical issue. It is whether one has the ideas, decisiveness and courage to take the radical decisions that must be made.