Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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175. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the amount his Department has provided for demographic growth in the higher education sector for the next five years; the amount provided in budget 2017; if the figure provided is taken into account when calculating the fiscal space; the number of staff who have been hired over each of the past five years specifically to address demographic growth in the higher education sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9240/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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In Budget 2017 I secured, for the first time in nine years, additional funding for the sector of €36.5 million for 2017. This includes an allocation of €14 million towards demographics increases in the sector. €160 million additional funding overall over the next three years has also been agreed. As the Deputy will be aware, the Report of the Expert Group on the Future Funding for Higher Education is currently with the Oireachtas Committee for consideration and following its deliberations it is hoped to put in place an agreed approach as to how the sector should be funded in the long term.

As the Deputy will be aware, since the introduction of the moratorium on public sector recruitment, an Employment Control Framework (ECF) has been in place for the higher education sector which provides institutions with considerable flexibility to fill vacancies, through recruitment or promotions on the basis of meeting an overall ceiling of posts. It also allows institutions to fill positions where the funding for the post is from 'non-core' sources.

My Department allocates the recurrent funding to the Higher Education Authority (HEA) for direct disbursement to the HEA designated higher education institutions. The HEA allocates this funding to the institutions and the internal disbursement of funding is then a matter for the individual institution. Higher education institutions are autonomous bodies and are responsible for their own day to day affairs, including the allocation of all of its income (both public and private) and for the management of its staffing compliment.