Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We should thank the Deputy for raising this matter. The 2016 expert group report, Investing in National Ambition: A Strategy for Funding Higher Education, confirmed that higher education made a significant positive contribution to the development of individuals, employers, society and the State. It concluded that the approach to funding at the time was unsustainable and that substantial increases in investment in higher education needed to be made to ensure that the sector could remain viable and provide capacity to meet the major increase in student demand that was projected up to 2030.

Since 2015, my Department has been working hard to deliver a significant programme of reinvestment in higher education. In that period, current public expenditure allocated to the higher education sector has increased by more than €500 million, or almost 40%. In 2022, this allocation will be in excess of €2 billion, including capital investment in the order of €2.4 billion. Funding and policy developments in recent budgets have taken significant steps to address the funding needs of the sector. Most notably, and in line with a recommendation of the Cassells report, a new stream of employer funding was introduced upon review of the National Training Fund. This level of investment responded to demographic pressures and underpinned a range of initiatives in the sector, including a substantial investment in the evolution of technological universities and significant skill-enhancing opportunities for individuals, sectors and regions. My Department is also continuing to address the demographic pressures on the sector through the provision of additional places in further and higher education, and in budget 2022, we secured additional funding for sectoral pensions. This significant allocation of public resources is a clear demonstration of the Government's commitment to meeting the funding needs of the higher education sector in order to realise more fully its potential to contribute to economy and societal priorities that are central to the country's long-term sustainability.

Regarding the ongoing work on implementing the recommendation of the Cassells report, the development of a sustainable funding model for higher education is essential, in light of the credibility of higher education and of our progress as a country. My Department's statement of strategy, published in March 2021, contained a commitment to putting in place a sustainable funding model for higher education. In this context, I was encouraged by the completion of a comprehensive economic evaluation of the funding options presented in the report of the Expert Group on Future Funding of Higher Education, as supported under the European Commission's Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support, DG REFORM, programme. The aim of this review was to investigate methods of increasing the sustainability of higher and further education provision, including an examination on the funding options.

On 9 December, a Cabinet committee on economic recovery approved sending the Commission's review to the Cabinet and recommended that the Government note: the contents of the comprehensive independent economic evaluation of the funding options originally presented in the 2016 report and now detailed in a report on increasing the sustainability of higher and further education provision in Ireland, which was funded through the DG REFORM programme; the confirmation by the detailed analysis undertaken in the report of the existence of a significant shortfall in funding for higher education necessary for a high-performing, high-quality higher education system to underpin the achievement of Ireland's economic and social objectives and ambition; and the key recommendations contained in the evaluation report, including that a sustainable model of financing for the higher education system should be prioritised to support the future development of the higher education and further education and training systems in meeting the economy's human capital and skills needs. There were a number of other points to note but since I am running out of time, I will skip them.

I am pleased to inform the Senator that the Cabinet is today considering both the DG REFORM review and my Department's response to it. The Senator is on the money today.