Advancing the technological university, TU, and institute of technology, IoT, sector is a major priority for Government, and for me. This is evidenced by significant targeted investment over many years and demonstrates our commitment to balanced regional development, building research and innovation capacity and with it, Ireland’s global competitiveness, all while increasing access to university education for more students and delivering it on a regional basis as the TUs are doing. My Department has provided extensive funding and support to aid the TUs that are undergoing extensive and complex transformation programmes. Most recently, I announced allocations of up to €65.8 million under the targeted enhancement fund, TEF, to support the continued transformation and strategic development of higher education institutions in the technological sector and publicly funded specialist colleges. That TEF funding is to enhance that offering in terms of capabilities and everything from information technology, IT, systems to project management and human resources management, and make sure they are fully strengthened and given the capacity-building supports they require. At this point, legacy management structures in the IoTs, have transitioned to new cross-campus executive university management structures in four of the five TUs. The predecessors in the IoTs have been amalgamated into cross-campus executive teams. The final one, South East Technological University, SETU, is in transition and is currently being assessed. These roles are critical in supporting the TUs to deliver the strategic missions. Additionally, I expect to see further progression now that I have sanctioned a new professor grade for TUs, which I secured Cabinet approval for just last December. That will support the TUs in their engagement, education, research and innovation capacities. I have also distributed over €223 million in capital funding to the sector across a variety of programmes over the past term, and I continue to work on the metrics under the TU Act, working towards the ambitions to make sure they are an absolute success.
Sentiment score: 0.39
I am aware of the report. I have read it. I should say that has not yet been peer reviewed. It is a draft report by two academics in, I think, Tralee that is in circulation . I am open to all feedback and suggestions, but I add the caveat that it has not yet been peer reviewed. Other academics I have spoken to do not think it will pass the peer review process, but that is open-ended. It is a curious report in many ways. One of the claims it contains is to the effect that the planned amalgamation between Dundalk Institute of Technology, DKIT, and Queen's University Belfast is a system failure. I find that quite extraordinary, because I think that is a great, ambitious and exciting all-island university project. It depends where you are coming from and I think those academics may have a particular axe to grind. They are entitled to have that - it is their prerogative - but I certainly would not share all of the report's findings. There may be hitting some points but I think it is a curious perspective they have taken. More generally, I would say that TUs are not failing. The number of students, including research students, at the TUs continues to grow. There might be ups and downs, as in any sector, but, widely, they are growing, and they certainly they continue to invest. We have a number of exciting, new courses. For example, the new professional veterinary course will be offered in both Atlantic Technological University, ATU, and South East Technological University, SETU, from this September. I might come back on this point in the next round. There are many new courses coming on stream.
Sentiment score: 0.16
I am always open to feedback. The academics and authors of that report are entitled to their views, as are others. I just do not share all of their conclusions. As the Deputy said, the consultant spending was before my time. A lot of it was before the Department even existed. The TU sector on the whole has been an enormous success, however. We now have TUs up and down the country. We have regional universities in Letterkenny, Tralee and Waterford, places which never had university status before. There are many other locations as well. It is exciting for those regional areas and towns and their hinterlands. I mentioned the veterinary course in ATU. That means that we now have veterinary students coming through from Donegal, Sligo and the north west who do not have to travel to Dublin or, even worse, Poland for their professional education. I was in Waterford recently launching the new SEAM lab, which is a material science facility as part of SETU. It will engage in exciting, leading-edge and enterprise-focused research. The TUs have been a tremendous success already, providing world-class university education in the regions, along with investment in research. In respect of reviews, spending controls etc. the HEA has commissioned a review of both the technological university transformation fund, TUTF, and the technological sector advancement fund, TSAF. There are reports under way. We always have to ensure we are getting value for money, spending competitively and getting resources to meet our approach.
Sentiment score: 0.17
I thank the Deputy. I wish all students sitting examinations the very best of luck, as well as all those students who are coming to an end of their secondary education, whether they are going to college, further education or elsewhere. Like the Deputy, I will not get much of a break. While this House breaks up in two or three weeks’ time, I will host the European research Ministers the week after that. There are a number of engagements over the summer as part of the Presidency. We will all be busy in our constituencies as well. I hope those in this House get some break, however. It is important to get a chance to recharge. While there are several hundred commitments in the programme for Government, every year, this budgetary measure seems to be the one that gets asked four or five months ahead of the budget process. No more than any Minister in any Department, I simply cannot write the October budget in June or July. However, I will engage with the Ministers in the Department of Finance and the Department of public expenditure on this. A budget Estimate package is being put together in my Department. I am working with my officials to devise it. It will focus on the cost of college and supporting students in every way I can. That can be multifaceted. While it can include fees, it may also include areas such as SUSI, student accommodation, cost of travel, cost of materials and a variety of other things, such as placements. We will be engaging on all of those areas. Certainly, it would be premature for me to make any prediction, good, bad or indifferent, as to the content of my budget package four months out. I will recap on some of the measures I have introduced already because it is important to put them on the record again. In the previous budget, I was pleased to introduce the first ever permeant fee cut for students since free fees were introduced almost 30 years ago with a €500 permanent reduction. It replaced the transient, previous cost-of-living measures, which were only ever temporary and could not be relied upon year to year. The €500 reduction is here to stay. It has benefitted an estimated 108,000 undergraduate students and 14,000 apprentices. That reduction cost €55.4 million this year. It is baked in at the baseline. While I may well do more every year, that reduction is there to stay. It is not temporary like previous measures. As I said, going into the budget ahead, I will again be engaging on fees and many other items. While fees are extremely important for anyone who is liable to pay them, many families and students do not pay them at all because they are subsidised, either in full or in part, by the SUSI grant system.
Sentiment score: 0.20
I am committed to continue to reduce the cost of college and support measures, including fee reductions, wherever I can. Let us talk to the two cohorts the Deputy mentioned. Students sleeping in cars is an appalling vista. Of course, no student should be in that situation. If those students are paying fees, something has gone badly wrong. The only students who should be paying full fees – they are €2,500 because they have been reduced by €500 on a flat rate – are those students in households with an income above €120,000. If a student has a household income of €120,000 and is sleeping in a car, something is not adding up. I invite any student in that situation to engage with me. Alternatively, they can engage with the Deputy and she can bring it to my attention. We can then see whether something is slipping through the cracks because that should not be happening. When it comes to students working full time, I have increased the student disregard for SUSI eligibility to ensure that students’ part-time work is not counted against them when they are applying for their grants. I have also taken a number of other measures as well as increasing the threshold to €120,000, which brought more and more students into the system. When it comes to the non-adjacent rates, I increased the grants for any student who has to travel 30 km or more to college. There is also more funding for students with disabilities or mental health challenges. A variety of packages have been introduced in the last budget. I hope to do a lot more in the coming budget but four months out is too early to outline exactly what it will contain.
Sentiment score: 0.10
I agree with what the Deputy said. For the record, it is €120,000 rather than €100,000. I increased the threshold last year. Indeed, the Tánaiste, when he held this portfolio, increased it before me. We have continued to increase that threshold to the level that up to 70% of Irish households now qualify for at least some form of fee subvention. In fact, all benefit from the universal measures but 70% of households are now eligible for other supports. The Deputy mentioned the scenario of multiple children from a household attending college. These are the cases I would like to look at in a bit more detail in order to see how they might be dealt with by means of targeted measures as opposed to taking a one-size-fits-all approach, which we may well do also. We must consider whether there are particular courses that are missing out at the moment and on which we could focus? The Deputy mentioned the alienation scenario, which is always raised with me and which I am taking a good look at in order to identify what we can do. There are a number of other measures. The student accommodation strategy is up and running. Some results have begun to emerge already and some proposals emanating from the strategy in terms of greater accommodation provision. I hope to see that being accelerated as fast as possible. We have invited all colleges to make submissions in respect of the strategy. There are a number of different facets to the cost of attending college and making life easier for students.
Sentiment score: 0.26
For some students, commuting to college may be a practical choice if they live close to campus. For many others, however, it is not a choice; it is a necessity. This is not about preferences; it arises as a result of accommodation shortages. Two of my daughters recently commuted to college, so I understand it gives rise to an additional burden and can be an impediment in terms of full participation in campus life. One of the things I have said is that it is an absolute goal of mine to allow students to have the full college experience, which means experiencing broader education, taking courses outside of their core disciplines, taking part in the whole networking experience, participating in student societies and doing all of the things that are part of college life. The provision of high-quality student accommodation at scale on campus is a lever to unlock that. It is critical that we deliver this. In the context of those students who are commuting for their own reasons, including with regard to the distance they live from campus or for family reasons, it is important to recognise that we want to support them in terms of their need to commute and what we can do in each case. We provide student accommodation for those who want to live on campus or adjacent to it, but we also want to support the commuter student experience in other ways. The national student accommodation strategy published in March found that in 2024, the most recent year for which data are available, 18% of students living at home experienced commutes that are considered to be excessive. That highlights the ongoing need for suitable accommodation, and that is central to the planning in the student accommodation strategy. One of the reasons I increased the level of grants in the most recent budget was to recognise the additional costs for students who are commuting and travelling long distances. People also have access to the student assistance fund, student accommodation systems and 1916 bursary. An additional €10.5 million has been made available this year to support those students, and 30,000 or more undergraduate and postgraduate students have benefited as a result. Collectively, those measures recognise the additional burden faced by students who are commuting to college and should go some way towards assisting them.
Sentiment score: 0.06
I talk to students all the time. I have almost daily interactions with them. I also meet formally with AMLÉ on a regular basis. I sad down with its representatives very recently and had a good chat. That is an ongoing conversation I am involved in. In terms of what initiatives can be taken, I welcome the Deputy’s reference to Professor Thomas's report. If she wants to share it with me, I will be to look at it and see if we can action some of the recommendations it contains. One thing we are actioning is a new pilot initiative to bring together the higher education institutions, the National Transport Authority, NTA, councils and transport operators to look at a pilot scheme to improve sustainable commuting for students and to consider the different routes and timetables and the journeys that students make in order to see if can we make sure they are all aligned and synchronised to support the student experience. The Government has supported young people with the young adult Leap card, which complements the student Leap card and which offers a 50% discount on travel fares across the Transport for Ireland network. That is practical assistance. My children use the student Leap card, which is a very helpful and practical support.
Sentiment score: 0.23
I used to commute by train and would try to get a bit of work done, but it depends on the nature of a person's journey and whether they suffer from travel sickness or whatever. This goes back to the core point I made at the start that while some students might find it convenient and preferable, it would be really unfair to suggest - and I would never do so - that students are doing it by choice in all cases. Some people just have no choice and would prefer to have accommodation close to campus. That is why we have a pilot scheme. I have engaged with the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, in the context of our Departments working together on this matter. I am looking to drill down into the detail of smarter travel plans and of aligning matters. When we are meet representatives of colleges, they will inform us that there is a pattern of issues, including no bus stops outside lecture halls, students having to walk a mile down the road or whatever to get a bus or timetables not being aligned with lecture times. There are quick wins that we can identify by means of the pilot scheme. We can also look at ways to pull everything together in a way that works better for students and colleges. There may well be some relatively easy changes that we can make. If there are, we will certainly make them.
Sentiment score: 0.08
As the Deputy said, very fairly and positively, investing in Ireland’s apprenticeship system is a central priority for me, as Minister, and my Department. Investment in the apprenticeship system has more than doubled, from a base of €184 million in 2020 to more than €415 million this year. That is very significant increase in investment in the apprenticeship sector. It reflects the Government's focus on the apprenticeship system and includes support staff, administrative staff and staff in other roles. I am not aware of the specific case the Deputy referenced. He mentioned that there are some cases where support and administrative staff to go with the apprentices have not been provided. I am very open to the Deputy coming to me with the details in that regard. I will then be happy to interrogate the matter a little further if there is an issue in a particular location. Higher education institutions are autonomous bodies with responsibility for managing their own staff and resources. My Department provides them with significant funding, but, to an extent, how they manage that in terms of staff hires or otherwise, is within their own control and remit. This year, my Department is providing €113 million in apprenticeship funding to the HEA. That money will be suballocated to the higher education institutions. It covers the full costs of delivery, including operational costs like those relating to staffing. For craft apprenticeships, funding is provided by means of block grants, with a set amount allocated to each apprenticeship training block delivered by individual providers. That allocation covers all apprenticeship costs, including teaching, technical and administrative staff costs. For consortia-led apprenticeships, the Higher Education Authority agrees a unit cost with providers that covers the full cost of delivery, including staff costs. Decisions on recruitment, deployment and internal resourcing are matters for the institution themselves, but notwithstanding that, I am happy to have a look at the individual case. I might refer it on to the relevant HEI or education and training board, ETB, as appropriate. If the Deputy likes, he can bring it to my attention and I can do that. More broadly, SOLAS has been tasked with working through the apprenticeship system and making sure that we address any backlogs that have arisen and fast-track the creation of more places.
Sentiment score: 0.22
A few recent recruitment drives have been undertaken. SOLAS launched a recruitment campaign in late 2024 for new further education and training, FET, instructor staff nationwide. A campaign was run in the national media looking to recruit those personnel. One of the outputs of that saw the Dublin and Dún Laoghaire ETB in Loughlinstown fill a number of electrical instructor posts through a radio advertising campaign. Another five training centres in the City of Dublin ETB were also supported through that. There were various different recruitment campaigns looking to fill other posts. Some 135 posts were filled as a result. It started with the electrical instructors but it spread right across to carpentry and joinery, plumbing, motor mechanics, pipe fitting, heavy goods vehicles, HGVs, metal fabrication, advanced manufacturing, hairdressing and much more. I will not go through every single area. There were a couple of dozen different disciplines that had increased recruitment as a result of the campaigns. We are certainly trying. In some cases, the difficulties may not be due to a lack of budget, but a lack of available staff. That is why we are trying to do recruitment campaigns to bring in instructors, support staff and people for other such roles.
Sentiment score: 0.10
I entirely agree. I thank Deputy Kenny for his support and the support of his party on the broader policy initiative. What he says is true. I have visited MTU in Tralee. I have visited all of the different technological universities, TUs, and their components at least once, if not a few times. I recently held a construction skills roundtable event in UCD where we brought together the employers in the construction space, the trade unions and the training agencies - SOLAS, the ETBs and the HEA for a conversation on exactly that. The Deputy touched on our ambition as a Government to build housing and infrastructure at scale, be it the metro, the DART+ projects, the roads network, renewable energy or the energy grid. We are investing significantly in all of these under the national development plan, with a budget of over €200 billion over the lifetime of the Government. To meet infrastructure, housing and other needs, we must have the capacity to build this out. That requires multiple craft apprenticeships coming on stream and being supported, and having that pipeline of talent coming through. I am committed to driving that on. It is a key part of our national initiative.
Sentiment score: 0.26
As the Deputy is aware, Taighde Éireann - Research Ireland - was established in 2024 with the legislative remit to promote excellence and research across all activity fields and disciplines. Its first strategy was published this March following extensive consultation. I am satisfied that the strategy meets the legislative remit of the agency. The strategy and the publicly available programme plan accord with my own central philosophy, which applies just two very simple criteria to all disciplines: research should be excellent and impactful. What "impactful" means is not defined narrowly, but very broadly. It can mean many things. It can be societal resilience, economic impact or a long-term, slow-burn project that manifests in an entirely different way than how it was first conceived, as with all basic and frontier research. Impact is not a narrow metric at all; it is quite a wide one. I have also codified into my Department's strategy as one of its four central pillars that curiosity and the pursuit of knowledge are a public good, which speaks to the benefit of discovery research a priori without any particular exit conditions or targets at the start. The strategy has a balanced portfolio across all disciplines and career stages, with funding across different areas of study, from the arts, humanities and social sciences, AHSS, through to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, STEM - and across the spectrum of funding. I am very familiar with the letter. Obviously, I have read it but I also met the petitioners and the lead authors of it very recently. I am engaging with them. The Deputy quoted one line from the letter. I think they have actually resiled from that line because when we met, they refocused their attention on one or two particular items. I dare say there is a level of rhetoric or subjectivity in the letter - that is their prerogative. Some of the arguments do not stand up to scrutiny but others have more merit and I am engaging with them on those. I was open to engaging with them on all of the arguments but a number of those are perhaps a little bit political or subjective. Having said that, there certainly are some very good people involved and I have been engaging with them. I have asked Research Ireland to have a structured engagement with the group going forward to ensure the petitioners' concerns are heard and reflected in the new plan.
Sentiment score: 0.26
There were seven bullet points in the letter. I think six of them have been accepted as perhaps not being of the same level of concern as they were. The engagement was helpful in that regard because of the engagement with the authors on a number of those points. I strongly reject the assertion of a corporate culture. Again, maybe it is a little bit political and subjective. I appreciate that the Deputy is entitled to say it but I do not think it is a fair characterisation. There is no requirement whatsoever that there be an immediate, or any, economic impact. In fact, the strategy is very wide-ranging and allows for significant funding of discovery research, which I have always argued for. There are no metrics tied to corporate outputs, as the Deputy might have suggested. That was probably more than a little unfair. I take the point on the Government of Ireland scholarship. That is the one that we agree needs to be revisited and examined. There are certainly merits in the proposed new approach but I also accept that there are legitimate concerns raised as well. There is engagement under way, facilitated by myself but ultimately between Research Ireland and the research community. I have had a number of meetings on that in recent weeks and will continue to do so.
Sentiment score: 0.13
I do not think it actually does say that. I say that in a genuine spirit of partnership. I am not trying to catch the Deputy out or correct him. If he can find where it says that and bring it to my attention, I would welcome him doing so and we will have a look at it. I know the letter makes those claims but I do not think they are borne out in a detailed study of the strategy. If they are, it is not something I would support. I have been on the record of this House for many years saying that we need to support research across the full technology readiness level, TRL, spectrum from discovery and frontier research right through to applied. Of course, applied research has a really strong place in economic engagement and driving our enterprise and our knowledge economy is at the core. That creates jobs, talent and knowledge that can support both our economy and our society. Equally, discovery research is ultimately at the heart of all knowledge. Most of the leading, significant progressions of society and civilisation have come about through discovery research. In terms of funding for the arts, humanities and so on, that is ring-fenced within the strategy. It is proportionate to international comparisons and benchmarks, and certainly on a par with the historic funding of arts, humanities and so on through different research agencies such as the Irish Research Council, Science Foundation Ireland or the previous organisations. There is no reduction in that at all in the strategy or elsewhere. In fact, it is actually a ring-fenced fund.
Sentiment score: 0.18