Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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72. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his views on County Wexford's low third level educational attainment rates, which according to the Wexford Local Economic and Community Plan 2016-2021, are the third lowest in the country; the actions he is taking to address this issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16542/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The higher education system continues to respond strongly to the challenge of meeting Ireland’s human capital needs. While the economic recovery has created a strong and growing demand for graduate level employment, the higher education system continues to expand and enrol more students, and to provide an increasing supply of graduates for the labour market. Overall student numbers in the sector increased from 196,000 in 2011/12 to about 210,000 in 2014/15. In addition to this general growth, additional programmes have been put in place to address specific skills needs, through the Springboard+ programme and the ICT skills initiatives.

The performance of the Higher Education system in meeting human capital needs is also strong by comparison with other European countries: Ireland has one of the highest rates of 30–34-year-olds with higher education attainment, and Ireland performs particularly strongly in terms of graduates with STEM qualifications when considered against fellow EU member countries.

Ireland ranks 3rd in the EU28 in its tertiary attainment rate (Higher Education Qualification) (52.3% in 2015) for 30 – 34 year olds.  We are still significantly ahead of the EU28 average which rested at 38.7% in 2015.  This strong performance is confirmed in the recent OECD publication Education at a Glance which was published on 15 September 2016 and which placed Ireland 6th in the OECD in terms of its Tertiary Attainment Rate amongst 25-34 year olds.

International benchmarks show that Ireland continues to be a leading European country in overall educational attainment at tertiary level, and particularly so for younger cohorts of the population.  This reflects both the strong demand for tertiary education in Ireland and the strong incentives that are built into the funding model to encourage institutions to seek higher enrolment numbers.

The latest information available from the Higher Education Authority (HEA) demonstrates that the total number of graduates who gave their County of origin as Wexford, from all HEA funded Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), was 1,610 in 2014/15.  This is an increase of 13% over five years from the equivalent figure of 1,424 in 2010/2011.

Next Steps:

The outlook for future skills needs shows demand for higher education graduates from enterprise continuing to increase, along with growing demands from the increasing pool of school leavers.

The implementation of a System Performance Framework, Strategic Dialogue and the agreement of compacts with the Higher Education Institutions underpins a changed relationship between the State and the higher education system, and this provides for a new level of accountability for public funding against national objectives.

I published the second Systems Performance Report in December 2016 and this reviewed the performance of the higher education system for the years 2014 and 2015, in critical areas such as access and its responsiveness to skills needs of the economy.

I am now developing a new Systems Performance Framework for the period 2017 – 2021 which will set out the ambition, goals and objectives for higher education for this five year period.

In terms of County Wexford specifically, one of the most ambitious objectives of the System Performance Framework is an extensive restructuring of the higher education landscape, involving institutional mergers and new collaborative arrangements.

The Institute of Technology Carlow already have a Wexford Campus, based in Wexford Town, which offers an extensive range of award qualifications from Level 6 through to postgraduate Level 9 on the national Framework of Qualifications (NFQ).

I can also assure the Deputy that there are plans in place for the development of a Technological University for the whole South-East region.  The Technological University for the South-East (TUSE) project was initiated in 2011 and consists of a consortium involving the Institute of Technology Carlow and Waterford Institute of Technology.

Strategic vision for TUSE:

The core elements of a new agreed vision and values for the TUSE have already been set out by both Institutes and includes a commitment to:

- A systematic focus on the preparation of graduates for complex professional roles in a changing technological world;

- Advancing knowledge through research and scholarship;

- Dissemination of this knowledge to meet the needs of society and enterprise;

- Particular regard to the needs of the region.

In relation to the legislation, to underpin the development of Technological Universities, the third Government Legislative Programme of this new Partnership Government was published on 17 January 2017, and the Technological Universities Bill is listed on the Dáil Order Paper and is awaiting Committee Stage.

Following the finalisation of the ongoing consultation process I will then advance the legislation having determined a position in relation to any matters raised.

In addition to the merger projects, work is ongoing on greater inter-institutional collaboration in order to enhance the ability of institutions to respond to regional needs.  The implementation of actions in the National Skills Strategy including the further development and work of the Regional Skills Fora which will be responsible for bringing together higher and further education providers to better align education provision with skills needs.  Further actions include the planned entrepreneurship education policy statement and foreign languages in education strategy and implementation of the ICT skills action plan and ongoing engagement between higher education and employer interests will all contribute to addressing the issues raised in the coming years.