Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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237. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his Department is considering extending borrowing rights to institutes of technology, particularly in view of the recent HEA financial review of the institute of technology sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37587/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy may be aware, Institutes of Technology (IoTs) are classified as within General Government Balance for Eurostat purposes. This arises primarily due to the smaller level of income received by IoTs from non-State sources as against the Universities which have a higher proportion. The Deputy will appreciate the recent economic crisis and continuing constraints on Government as a result of EU fiscal rules on expenditure and debt levels has to date prevented the agreement of a borrowing framework for the IoTs.

However, my Department is continuing to discuss with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform the possibility of agreeing a borrowing framework as part of broader deliberations arising from the report of the Expert Group on Future Funding for Higher Education and the recently published Financial Review of the IoTs by the Higher Education Authority (HEA).

I can assure the Deputy that the HEA has been closely monitoring the financial position of all of the IoTs and in particular are working closely with those Institutes that are experiencing financial difficulties in order to ensure appropriate mechanisms are put in place to eliminate any deficit as quickly as possible.

The Financial Review of the Institutes was carried out by the HEA in order to provide an overview of the financial health of the IoT sector, to consider capacity issues and to examine the challenges for the institutions given their respective plans for the future. The report makes a number of recommendations on how some of the issues which contribute to funding problems in the IoT sector can be addressed, including the introduction of a borrowing framework to facilitate campus development in IoTs. All of the policy recommendations will feed into the work currently being undertaken on developing a sustainable funding model for the sector.