Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I second everything Senator Conway has just said.

When the presidents of our universities speak out, we should listen. They are people who are not prone to negative hyperbole. In fact, they have the important task of putting the best foot forward when marketing their universities and colleges nationally and internationally. When the president of UCD warns the sector is at risk, the provost of Trinity College warns of a quiet and gradual decline and the chair of the governing authority of UCC says the viability of Irish universities is under threat, we should be alarmed. When we hear these concerns echoed in supportive editorials in The Irish Times, the Irish Examiner and the Business Post, we can be reassured it is more than just the usual pre-budget posturing. Looking at this year's budget, as the Irish Universities Association has observed, there is much to welcome. Those of us who remember the Cassells report and the saga since then will realise there is something monumental in the Government at long last introducing a multiannual approach to core funding, while also addressing the ludicrous situation of not fully funding our universities to cover pay inflation driven by public sector pay awards. The increase in the PhD stipend is also good news. Postgraduate study and poverty should never have to walk hand in hand. Credit where credit is due but there is a problem. The Government itself acknowledged in 2022 that the sector is underfunded by €307 million per annum in its core funding needs.This means that between 2022 and 2029, even after Tuesday's budget, there will be a €1.3 billion shortfall in core funding for the sector. The figures announced on Tuesday are a public admission that the €307 million gap will never really be bridged. When Funding the Future was launched, we were told by the then Minister, Deputy Harris, that it would settle the question on higher education funding. It was much trumpeted and much heralded but it now seems that it would have been far more honest of him to have titled that document "Funding the distant future based on figures from the distant past". For a country that prides itself on education, we have a strange way of showing that pride. There is still hope that the yet to be announced supplementary budget will deliver the €70 million or so needed to cover unfunded pay awards. I acknowledge what has been addressed for 2025 for pay increases. However, there remains underfunding from previous years in respect of pay awards.

We should also resent that universities are being forced to justify themselves on the basis of their economic worth. President Higgins has spoken eloquently about the danger of this and the fact that it can lead to "the quiet capture of universities, overtly or covertly, by powerful elites and corporate interests". Universities are to be valued not just for their utilitarian contribution to the economy, positive that it is, but for being a cornerstone and foundation of an open, democratic and learned society. While I welcome what is positive in the budget, our universities will not be able to retire the begging bowl just yet. At a time of plenty in our public coffers, that is a real shame. I ask for a debate on this issue as soon as possible.