Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for her contribution and for tabling the amendment. I very much get the point she is trying to make. To be clear, as of now, the law of the land is that, under the 1971 legislation we are currently governed by, the CEO of the HEA can solely, on his or her own, pause funding. There is currently no right of appeal. The CEO of the HEA can decide today to pause funding and there cannot be an appeals mechanism.

Under the legislation we are passing, as the Senator quite rightly said, there is now an appeals mechanism. She is very much correct that that appeals mechanism should be cognisant of the impact the withholding of any funds has on the student population, especially vulnerable learners. One of the reasons we are trying to pass this legislation is to have a funding framework in place to know where the public investment is going. It is entirely possible, through the funding framework we have, to include where funding is meant to go to protect any such funding pots from any such sanction. I have to set up the appeals mechanism to reflect on and try to encompass what the Senator said in making sure the appeals mechanism is cognisant of that.The idea about ring-fenced funding is interesting. As the Senator and I discussed, we do it in respect of the Criminal Assets Bureau and dormant accounts and the pots of funding arising from both that can be distributed and directed to further advance Government and societal priorities. I will engage further with the Senator on that matter in order to see if we can make progress on it.