Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 177: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the levels of funding provided to Carlow Institute of Technology and Waterford Institute of Technology for the past ten years; if there are plans to have a university in the south east; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9812/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Details of capital and recurrent funding provided to Carlow Institute of Technology and Waterford Institute of Technology for the past ten years are set out in the attached document. In June 1996, the Government approved, in principle, the recommendations of the steering committee on the future development of higher education, as a benchmark for future planning in the sector. The steering committee concluded that an upgrading and expansion of Waterford Regional College, now Waterford Institute of Technology, represented the most appropriate response to the higher education needs of the south-east region. The committee's report also recommended an increase in student places, an increase in degree level awards and a change of title. It was recommended that the major focus of expansion be at degree level. It stated that such provision would place the college at the top end of the spectrum in terms of provision of degree places and would enable the region to reach the national average participation rate in degree programmes.

The Government accepted these recommendations. The provision, in both the total number of places and in degree level courses in Waterford Institute of Technology, has been expanded annually and incrementally in line with available resources. These measures, combined with the change of title of the college provide the necessary status and capacity for the institute to meet the identified higher education needs of the region over the coming years. Consistent with this approach, WIT was among the first institutes of technology to be given authority to make its own educational awards under the terms of the Qualifications (Education and Training) Act 1999.

As the Deputy will be aware, in 2004, an expert group from the OECD carried out a major review of our higher education system. In the course of their review, the expert group visited Ireland and consulted extensively with all the major education stakeholders. In its report, published in September 2004, it recommended that the differentiation of mission between the university and the institute of technology sectors be preserved and that for the foreseeable future there should be no further institutional transfers into the university sector.