Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 151: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if he will publish the report he submitted to the Government which discussed the possible options for the reintroduction of third level fees in view of the fact that the proposal is no longer proceeding and the document no longer requires to be confidential; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37074/09]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy is aware, I had previously signalled my intention to bring the technical report that my officials prepared, at my request, on 'Policy Options for New Student Contributions in Higher Education', to Government for consideration and decision. However, in light of the changed economic circumstances that have given rise to the commitment contained in the new Programme for Government, I will not now be proceeding on this basis.

While it is agreed that a new form of student contribution should not be introduced in the current economic circumstances, the longer term question of future funding arrangements for the sector is clearly relevant to the work of the Higher Education Strategy Group in framing a vision and strategy for higher education over the next twenty years. Accordingly, I now propose to refer the technical report to the Strategy Group as an input to its broader deliberations on how any additional resource requirements for delivering on a new vision and related set of policy objectives for the sector can be met over the timeframe of the new strategy. I intend to publish the technical report in the near future.