Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is very welcome. I am glad we have the opportunity today to talk about this and hopefully make some headway. I welcome the Cabinet's decision yesterday to create a new sub-committee to oversee assistance being given to people fleeing Ukraine. I trust this will provide a level of oversight which has so far been lacking.

A committee is for discussion and debate, however, and what we truly need here and now is a leader in this regard. I have called for it before and do so now again. We need one woman or man in the Government to be appointed to call the shots and be the figurehead who will co-ordinate a whole-of-government approach to providing for the refugees we have taken in. That might be a Minister for refugees or Ukraine crisis co-ordinator. It does not matter what we call him or her, but we need one person at the highest level to take responsibility and have a master plan to establish co-ordination between all Departments and efficient communication down the lines through Government agencies and services to the Ukrainian people here.

At the moment, it is not there and people are falling through the cracks. Ireland held out its hands and opened its arms to these people. Now, we must follow through. It is not good enough to pat ourselves on the back for taking X number of refugees into the country if once they get here, they are put away into hotels and student accommodation. We rely on local authorities, volunteers and businesses to take it from there. There cannot be any passing the buck on this one. We are talking about people's lives here and it is simply too important.

When it comes to the continuation of studies for Ukrainian students, this surely must be a priority. Many of Ukraine's universities operate or teach their courses through English. English language proficient students must be allowed places in our third-level institutes and be allowed to continue their studies as soon as possible. Those who are not currently proficient in English surely cannot be discriminated against. Do we need Ukrainian course translators or personal translators? Should our third-level institutions be offering regular high-intensity free lessons in English as a foreign language to get students up to scratch in order that they may continue their studies? There are ways of doing this. The only way we cannot go about it is to leave it up to the people on the ground and to the Ukrainian students themselves to investigate what options are available, or leave it to retired language teachers to offer their spare time to come into hotels and hold classes. The people on the ground are doing Trojan work. This is too big for that to be our response. We need a synchronised Government response. We need a Minister.

Of course, when it comes to our higher and further education systems, they were not without issue even prior to the war in Ukraine. Universities, technological institutes and colleges have long raised the issue of lack of funding as a major stumbling block when it comes to the carrying out of their functions. I understand that the Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has been examining the future funding of higher and further education over the past few months. We all look forward to the report that will be prepared on foot of that. It seems that the wishes of most of the witnesses thus far can be summed up by the phrase "more capital funding". It would seem that we are lagging behind other member states in this regard, particularly in research and development funding. I would like to think we can examine more specific solutions, however, rather than simply raiding the Exchequer.

One such method of funding, which is detailed in the Cassells report, relates to what are known as "income-contingent student loans". Before the term conjures up the bogeyman of American-style crippling student debt in Senators' minds, allow me to go into the system. Income-contingent loans are automatically deducted from the graduate's paycheck on the basis of his or her monthly earnings. This makes them low to zero for low earners, and payments only increase as earnings increase. They are, therefore, designed to be affordable. The income-contingent deal is, therefore, unlike other forms of debt. Implementing a system of this kind could funnel millions of euro into the education sector from the business sector via graduates in a low-impact and sustainable manner. So far, however, the desire seems to be for a fully taxpayer-funded system. While this may seem attractive because it provides access to education at no upfront cost to the student, it is ultimately the most regressive approach as it entails the biggest transfer of resources from those who have not benefitted from a higher education, the lower-paid and those who have the better pay. After all, there is no such thing as public money - only taxpayers' money.

While we are still in need of a Minister with responsibility for refugees, we do have a Minister with responsibility for further and higher education. As the Minister, Deputy Harris, and the Minister of State approach the two-year anniversary of their posts, the future funding of third-level education still looms large as the enigma they must crack. We eagerly anticipate what will come. I thank both the Minister of State and the Minister. Both of them have probably been the most progressive Ministers I have seen in a portfolio for a long number of years. I really want to put that on the record of the House.