Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House to discuss the technological universities agenda. My notes are scattered across various pieces of paper so I apologise to the people typing this up. First, I congratulate the Minister, CIT and IT Tralee for signing today for the legal establishment of the Munster Technological University, which will be effective from 1 January. As I always do when I speak in the House, I shall toot the horn of the student movement. When I was president of the Union of Students in Ireland, the student unions of IT Tralee and CIT had already completed their work to amalgamate the student unions. That was four years ago, so it is super that their parent bodies have now also completed that work. It was a big issue during my time and the student unions were champing at the bit to get themselves together, so it is an exciting time to see this starting to speed along and come to fruition.

It would be remiss of me not to talk about some of the areas that need to be looked at in the higher education sector. I spoke here previously about the rather discouraging piece in thejournal.ieon the series that was done by Noteworthy on the way staff in the higher education sector are being treated. Many are on zero-hour contracts or term-time only contracts and are not being paid for the enormous amount of overtime that they do. Institutions consistently argue that they do not have the budgets to pay all of their staff, hence the use of postgraduate students for unpaid tutorial or lecturing work. I do not think that is any way to treat staff. Over the summer, postgraduate students in NUI Galway were expected to teach as part of their postgraduate studies with no remuneration. This has been a widespread practice for a long time but it was the first time I saw it so blatantly circulated in black and white. It is no coincidence that vocational roles in Ireland are treated so poorly. Teaching and healthcare staff are often affected. As I always do, I may as well mention the plight of student nurses and how they are working and not being paid. They are on the Covid front line every day. I am going to talk about it until we get them paid.

I did make a request, through the Leader of this House, that the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science would come into the House to discuss the precarious work practices in the higher and further education sector. The reason I bring this up is because we are talking about technological universities and the future of higher education and how we are being innovative. However, I struggle to see how we can have this wonderful stride forward in the TU sector unless we are committed to dealing with the precarious nature of employment in the sector. There is no point in investing all of this money in the sector and building new consortia and brilliant centres for the regions if we are going to make the same mistakes of the past in terms of precarious work. I am interested to hear the Minister's comments on that and what we are going to do to ensure that we stem precarious work in the sector. We must ensure that it does not continue in the new technological universities and that they are a bastion for what we are looking for in the higher and further education sector. I do not want them to be hamstrung by this blight, which is the only way I can describe it, in terms of how workers are treated in the higher and further education sector.

The Minister mentioned the borrowing framework. This has been an issue for IoTs for a number of years. I remember talking about this in the HEA and we were all pulling our hair out. We said they could not borrow money and that it was a nightmare. The Minister said there will be five more technological universities but, potentially, two institutes will be left out from joining the technological universities. Does the Minister have any comment to make on that, so that we ensure those two institutions do not get left behind because they simply cannot compete with the rest of the technological universities and universities that are able to access funds through the borrowing framework? I have other concerns about how those institutions will be left behind or may not be able to compete with the technological universities and the university sector. I am interested in particular in hearing about borrowing, as that has been an issue for the IoTs and now that will be addressed, but we cannot leave two institutions behind. Does the Minister have a comment to make in that regard?

The Minister also spoke about the TUs being an opportunity for the regions and for people to be able to access education. It would be remiss of me not to speak about my second favourite topic, which is funding and fees and how people are able to access higher education. We have the second highest fees in Europe and, if and when Brexit finally topples over the line, we will have the highest fees in Europe. We need to have a genuine conversation about access to higher education. We can put all the schemes in place and do everything to try to get people through the cracks but, ultimately, if there is a financial barrier in place that decides who is in the room and who is not in the room, that creates a homogenous group of people. Previous speakers have alluded to who is and who is not in the room and who has access to education in terms of people from various socioeconomic backgrounds. If there is a financial barrier in place, it decides who is in the room from the get-go.

I probably do not need to say too much about the impact of not being able to access education in terms of the waste of potential and loss. We talked in the debate about the Irish nationality and citizenship Bill about those people who are not able to access education, whose parents are undocumented, and the impact that has on them. I always say, and in fairness the Minister does too, not everyone needs to go to university. Not everyone needs to get a qualification. There are lots of opportunities for work, training and apprenticeships, but everyone should have the opportunity to access lifelong learning if they so wish. It is an extraordinarily large investment that the Minister has outlined for the TU sector and I hope it will open up the opportunity for many more people. We talk about investment in the regions and this being an opportunity for the regions. I am positive and optimistic about the impact the TUs will have in the regions in opening up opportunities for people who perhaps have not had them previously. I am an advocate for lifelong learning from cradle to grave. We must ensure that the move to the TUs does not repeat the mistakes of the past. I talk about precarious learning. My sisters and I all had very different ways of learning.I went to university, one of my sisters went to an IT and another went through post leaving certificate courses. My mother went to the Open University and my dad was sent to Liverpool to train as an accountant before becoming a farmer. We all accessed education in very different ways, so I am very excited to see how the TU agenda gives that opportunity to many more people and the different ways of learning. There is also communication, which the Minister spoke of a lot. We say people need an education, but they need opportunity to do so. I hope the TUs open people's eyes to the opportunities available if they want them.

I echo the importance of student representation. I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to have student voices and student consultation at every level, the technological research network and the whole way through.

A Star Wars quote came to mind: "You can't stop change any more than you can stop the suns from setting". The higher and further education landscape is rapidly changing. We have a lot of work to do to make sure that the Oireachtas and Government can respond to that change and to the needs of people who are clearly calling out for change. I hope we can keep up with the rapid change that is happening. TUs are an important step in that and I wish the Minister well as he steers that ship. We must make sure that some of the mistakes hampering the further and higher education sector do not infect the technological university sector as well.