Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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Question 196: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will list all savings he has sought in the third level sector separate to savings achieved as part of Budget 2012 and under the Croke Park Agreement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36325/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The reality of the economic situation and the public expenditure corrections which must be made in the coming years present challenges across all areas of public expenditure, including higher education. The funding of our higher education sector is addressed as part of the budgetary process each year.

The Government is committed to driving reforms to radically reduce costs across the public service whilst improving service and strengthening the fiscal position of the economy. In order to drive this agenda, last November, my colleague Brendan Howlin announced a number of important initiatives for the reform of the Public Service including a comprehensive Public Service Reform Plan which includes actions across fourteen key areas.

The Higher Education sector in particular has a strong track record in establishing shared services and some of these are now well established brands – including HEAnet and the CAO. There are a number of projects underway in the sector including the increased use of aggregated and shared procurement which are delivering savings for the institutions.

My Department is continuing to work with the higher education sector and the wider education sector to achieve savings including through the implementation of shared service arrangements.

The National Strategy for Higher Education, published in 2011, provides the blueprint for developing a more coherent and efficient higher education system in Ireland. The Strategy envisages the development of institutional mergers and regional collaborative clusters which will see the delivery of significant efficiencies in terms of programme delivery, quality enhancement and cost savings. The implementation of the Strategy recommendations is ongoing. The landscape documentation published by the HEA on 13th February includes guidelines for regional clusters and criteria for institutional mergers in the institute of technology sector and is available on www.hea.ie.

It is essential that we balance the need for sustainable growth in higher education with the need to protect the reputation and quality of our institutions and graduates, if Ireland is to continue to attract investment and encourage economic growth and job creation.