Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Clonan and the Independent Members for introducing this motion on the situation of young people in Ireland. During the Covid pandemic young people have suffered more than any other sector of society. This is something we have discussed at length in this House. I hope to address many of the issues in the motion and discuss how we might find solutions.

One of the most transformational aspects of Ireland over the past 40 years has been in the levels of educational attainment. During the 1970s, fewer than two out of every ten in the 18 to 20 age cohort went on to higher education. That statistic is now approaching two out of every three. That excludes those who are going on to further education and training where far more opportunities are presented now. In the space of two generations, Ireland has transformed itself through educational opportunity. That has been done under different Governments and through a variety of means.

It was often argued that our economic and social development was based on two key things: tax and talent. The tax argument is no longer really there. Our argument for the 21st century will relate to talent. We need to ensure that we have domestic talent and also that we continue to welcome international talent. We have always been an open and tolerant country and I hope that will continue.

We have some very specific challenges at the moment. The number of places available in higher education continues to be expanded. We saw it in the budget yesterday. I am particularly glad that a significant number of the 1,000 places that were provided in the budget are in the medical and paramedical area and also in medical-related programmes. It needs to go further. One of the concerns I have related to the graduate medical programme which I believe should be expanded. The Fottrell report recommended a more attractive programme in terms of the quality of students because they would have done an undergraduate science degree or whatever and then done medicine at postgraduate level. That is beyond the means of many students.

With Bank of Ireland pulling out of the loan market for students, we need to address that question. While it is of benefit for medical graduates to be able to go abroad and get experience, we should also look at the State providing greater funds to our medical students on the proviso that there would be an expectation that if the State is giving them a grant, they would work for a period within and contribute to the public health service here.

I welcome some of the improvements that were made in the budget relating to higher education. I am happy with some of the Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, grant reforms. I was concerned that if there was only going to be a cut in student fees, it would not benefit the most disadvantaged students because they do not pay fees. My concern relating to the higher education budget is that the net increase in core funding to higher education was only of the order of €40 million. When we saw the report on funding our future published earlier this year, the estimated shortfall in higher education funding is of the order of €307 million. While the benefit to individual students is welcome, we still have not tackled the question of the core funding crisis.

As part of the housing budget, money will be made available to higher education institutions for on-campus accommodation. We need to move to the European and American model where there is extensive on-campus accommodation. Due to the cost of construction at the moment, renting at a commercial rate is beyond the scope of the average student. Therefore, the State will need to subsidise the provision of some of that student accommodation with a view that in the long run, universities will be able to benefit from that by renting out the accommodation during the summer months. However, we need to be radical in our approach in some of those areas.

There is a specific challenge with some of the career paths that graduates can follow if they are expected to live in expensive areas. Very extensive public sector pay negotiations took place, but it is very difficult to expect graduate teachers and graduate nurses to be able to work in a city as expensive as Dublin when they are paid the same rate as somebody who is living in a rural community, for instance in the west of Ireland. We need a debate on the possibility of Dublin weighting or weighting for the major urban areas when it comes to graduate salaries. That is important in order to balance it.

This debate is worthy of consideration. We should not knock the extent of the progress we have made as a country. However, we have an obligation to ensure we address some of the challenges.