Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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161. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the measures she has taken in the past number of years to increase the number of computer science graduates; the cost of the €1,000 top-up to block grants to each higher level institute, by computer science student enrolled; if this programme has been a success; the number of additional computer science graduates it has led to; her concerns and those of the Higher Education Authority regarding the reduced quality of computer science graduates as a result of the increased intake. [43180/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Given the scale of demand for ICT skills in recent years, my Department and the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation launched a revised Government/Industry ICT Skills Action Plan in 2014. The Plan takes a comprehensive approach including increases in high-level graduate output, enhancing awareness of ICT as a career among students, maintaining a strong talent pool and promoting Ireland as a destination for ICT talent. Implementation of the plan is being overseen by a high-level steering group shared by the two departments and including representatives from industry and the education system, and delivery teams have been set up to progress areas of work set out under the plan.

ICT graduate output from the higher education sector has increased significantly since the first ICT plan was published in 2011.

In order to increase the number of mainstream ICT graduates, in 2014 the Higher Education Authority (HEA) introduced incentivised level 8 ICT places whereby higher education institutions were offered a top up grant of €1,000 per additional place offered.

The funding provided in 2014 and 2015 in respect of the additional Level 8 places is €427,020 providing for an additional 200 places in 2014/15 and an additional partial payment of 30% towards the provision of 1,060 in 2015/16. The data for registrations for 2015/16 will not be available until the new year and this will be used as the basis for further funding allocations for 2015/16. My Department is working actively with all partners on progression of this initiative and is making plans in respect of 2016.

Springboard+, which incorporates the ICT skills conversion programme, was introduced in 2011 and is providing free higher education places for jobseekers who wish to upskill or reskill in areas of identified skills needs. ICT is one of the key areas targeted and to date almost 11,500 people have taken an ICT course, at all levels of the National Framework of Qualifications. Funding of the order of €63.8m has been allocated for this ICT provision. The Springboard programme is managed by the HEA on behalf of my Department and academic and employment outcomes for Springboard graduates are very strong. Further information on outcomes is available in the trend analysis reports which are published on www.springboardcourses.ie.

The Information Technology Investment Fund (ITIF) continues to be managed by the HEA, in response to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) skills needs as identified by the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN). The aim of the ITIF is to support student access to, and participation on, courses which would provide an opportunity to acquire new or additional Level 7 - 9 qualifications so as to enhance their employability in ICT areas. Courses are required to contain significant levels of ICT content and areas of study include Business Informatics, Multimedia Technology, Software Design and Development, Bio-engineering, Telecommunications and Information Systems.

Overall, I am confident that the quality of our ICT graduates remains very strong, and I would note that graduates are very well regarded by industry and remain in very high demand as they contribute to exciting developments in ICT in Ireland.