Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to say to the Minister that the budget had some very welcome moves in higher education regarding student fees and improving the SUSI grant. I am somewhat concerned about addressing core funding for higher education. I am sure that the Minister is aware from reading the Funding our Future policy document that the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, sought to quantify the scale of the investment needed just to address the funding crisis in higher education, and the Estimates are of the order of €307 million. The additional €40 million provided in the budget is welcome but that sum is a long way short of €307 million.

Our challenge at the moment is as follows. We know about the crisis in higher education. It is a good news story that we have an ever increasing number of people taking up third level places. I also welcome the fact that additional places are being provided again this year, particularly in certain critical areas for society and the economy. However, there is no point in continuing to create places if we do not address the underlying question of core funding.The issue has been kicked around for the past decade. It was welcome when it was quantified this year. The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, committed to a programme of investment of €307 million. The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, having worked at a university, will be familiar with some of the challenges faced by that sector in respect of a lack of space and the pressures on libraries, laboratories and other services. We need a timeframe for the sector for when we can talk about investing that €307 million. We must remember that money is just to address the current funding crisis within the sector. There are other issues, including those relating to student accommodation and so on. Those are separate challenges. This is about ensuring our higher education students and researchers are able to operate in world-class universities and higher education institutions. I was disappointed, given the level of the commitment supposedly received by the Funding the Future document, that the budget only went as far as the provision of €40 million. This country's social and economic future is going to be based on talent and our universities and higher education institutions are going to be at the heart of that. We must ensure the conditions in which students, researchers and academics operate are able to hold their own against other institutions around the world. At the moment, because of the funding crisis, they are unable to do so, as they say themselves. I hope the Minister can give us a timeframe, in the context of Funding the Future, for when we can address the deficits in the sector.