Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to take this matter. He will be aware the Cassells report was published in 2016. For five years, it has been kicked to touch, but having sought advice at European level, we did get an assurance from the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science that we will finally come to crunch time - I believe the phrase he used was "this is the year" - and that there would be an update published this autumn on how we are proceeding with implementing the report. My question and that of most of the sector is when we will see that update this autumn. Will we clearly see, either as part of the budgetary process next week or in the very near future after that, a clear timetable to ensure we have a sustainable model for funding of higher education?

Higher education has been underfunded, as I am sure the Minister of State is aware, but during the pandemic the situation became even more critical. Higher education institutions and students responded very well in difficult circumstances, but the financial challenge facing those institutions grew even more. As the Minister of State will be aware, the income from international students effectively collapsed and the opportunity to gain income from commercial activities also disappeared. We also saw a significant increase in the number of higher education places in terms of the number of students coming through the CAO system, which was most welcome. I think it is something we should be very proud of in this country that we have one of the highest participation rates in higher education in the world. Even though all those additional places were made available, and students will talk about this, the additional staffing and resources behind it were not there to match it.

Therefore, I am asking the following questions. Will we see the publication of the report quite soon? In the budget, or soon after, will we see a sustainable plan for the long-term funding of higher education? The Minister has also promised we will have a national strategy on research, which will be crucial for this country's long-term development. The current Government allocation for research and development is 0.94% of GDP, which is well below the EU average of 1.4%. There is also a commitment to undertake a review of SUSI, which is particularly important to students. Students are experiencing enormous financial difficulty at the moment. This is feeding into the funding crisis in higher education. I would appreciate an update soon on where we are with the SUSI review.

During the course of the pandemic, we saw the operation of a number of very inclusive working groups for the higher education institutions and those in the sector to try to resolve the problems. It has been a tradition in higher education that the approach would always be collaborative. This makes sense. I understand the group dealing with student accommodation is now being reconvened. It is important that all of the players are involved. However, in terms of this country's long-term development, everybody accepts our investment has to be in education, training and research. We have been kicking this can down the road for far too long. I am hoping the Minister of State will be able to provide us with some kind of update today on what is happening with the Cassells report and whether we will see a long-term strategy to ensure a sustainable higher education sector.