Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Last weekend marked the all-Ireland confined drama finals in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, and it was won by a drama group from Kilmuckridge, County Wexford. I am sure the Cathaoirleach will join me in congratulating the group and the director, Anthony O'Connor, and equally to wish the best of luck to the ten drama groups which, from tomorrow night, are taking part in the RTÉ all-Ireland open drama finals at the Dean Crowe Theatre in Athlone. This is a culmination after festivals have taken place all over the country where tens of thousands of people have gone along to see amateur drama groups put on some of the best performances that will be seen anywhere in the country. People realise because of the pandemic how much we have missed being able to go to the theatre in our local communities and how important that is. It is important we put on the record of this House our thanks to the Amateur Drama Council of Ireland for its organisation of these events and to all those who organised the drama festivals, and that we also wish the very best of luck to those taking part in the all-Ireland finals. We all understand how much we have missed live theatre and it is incredibly important in all our communities. To get it back up and running is an amazing experience. Now that the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, has outlined his proposals on the future of higher education funding, I hope we will have a debate. I welcome the commitments. The Minister was quite specific on "Morning Ireland" about some of the amounts of money to be invested. We need to hear more detail in a debate. We had a debate with the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, last week but it was before the discussions at Cabinet yesterday. Now that we know there will be a significant capital investment in higher education, it will be important to address the core funding issue. The Minister has said he will consider Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, grants and the question of the fees themselves. We should have an early debate to obtain clarity on these matters.