I will try to answer all the questions. If I miss any, I ask to be reminded of them.
With regard to Deputy McConalogue’s opening question on funding for Erasmus for All, the money is due to double in real terms over seven years. In the past seven years, approximately 18,000 Irish students have participated in the programme abroad. However, this is only half the number of foreign students coming to Ireland, which is regrettable. We are going to try to obtain more information on all the factors surrounding this. We hope to have a postgraduate student who has gone through the Erasmus programme talk to second level students on the programme's benefits.
With regard to Deputy McConalogue's second question, it is important to recognise that a good Presidency – the upcoming one will be Ireland’s seventh since joining the Union in January 1973 – is one that gets the business of the Union done efficiently and effectively and which advances the collective decision-making that has already taken place. In the main, Presidencies from larger countries tend to have a double agenda - a national agenda and an overall European presidential agenda, usually in that order. Ireland has been known for running successful Presidencies. It is expected right across the board that our upcoming one will be successful also. Having been in Brussels last week, I noted the expectation is perhaps higher than might be warranted. It is like expecting Donegal to win the all-Ireland two years in a row. One might aspire to it but it may not be easy to achieve.
The second point that is important to recognise, and which has only begun to sink in among many in the permanent governments of all member states, is that the European Parliament now has co-decision-making powers along with the Council of Ministers. It is no longer the rubber stamp it once was. For example, the European Parliament will have the power to reject the next Commission after the European elections in June 2014. Mr. Pat Cox, when President of the European Parliament, threatened to veto the appointment of a new Commission unless one of the candidates, whom I believe was proposed by the Italians, was replaced by another because of questions over his suitability for the role to which he was to be assigned. In referring to the permanent government, I mean no disrespect to my colleagues who are present. Many commentators do not realise that, as with every Parliament in the world, the European Parliament has grown by acquiring an increasing number of powers, to the point that it is now engaged in co-decision-making.
As a politician and parliamentarian, my job is to get through the two items of legislation. I refer to the new Erasmus for All programme, which encompasses a number of other programmes. The relevant authorities have used the brand name of Erasmus in the creation of Erasmus for All. It will be critical to get it through the Parliament. There is considerable work to be done in regard to it. It would be a good day's work for Ireland to have it put in place on behalf of the Union given that the programme will run for the next seven years.
The Parliament has a key role to play in respect of the second item of legislation. I met the rapporteur of the relevant committee and the chairperson of that committee, Mr. Malcolm Harbour, during my visit last week. The meetings were designed specifically to tee up the relationship between Ireland’s upcoming Presidency and the Members of Parliament, in particular. Both meetings were followed by a lunch for the Irish Members, from all the various parties, including Sinn Féin from Northern Ireland, with a view to outlining our agendas. We received many indications of help, support and co-operation.
The second issue, which we discussed briefly, concerned professional qualifications.
Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked about the multi-ranking issue and the question of regional clusters. Universities, for a variety of reasons, are now subject to a ranking system that is arbitrary and biased and does not measure the full effect of what is happening therein. The Shanghai index, which is the one most known to many of us, was basically constructed within the People's Republic of China to consider the deficit in the third level education system measured against that of the United States. The objective was to set a standard to which China could aspire by way of ranking various universities. Other indices have emerged, including the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, which has appeared in various forms. There are now three or four indices that rank universities. They are very significant, just as a tourist guide is for a tourist visiting a particular location, but one cannot take every tourist guide ranking system at face value. Of the top 100 universities in the QS ranking system, 29 are North American, 19 are British, and eight or nine are from the Commonwealth or the British English Anglo-Saxon sphere. The rankings are biased because those concerned use selection criteria on the basis of which they know they will emerge stronger at the other end.
German and French universities do not feature as high in the rankings or at the same level of strength because one criterion in the ranking system measures the amount of research that is being undertaken within the university. While significant research is taking place in both Germany and France, it is not taking place in institutions that are an integral part of the universities. For example, most research in Germany is carried out by research institutes in their own right that stand independent of any particular university. Therefore, this ranking system does not catch that level of research and, consequently, one might have a British university that ranks higher than a German university whereas in reality, the relative level of the latter is higher. As for how this matters to us in Ireland, as members are aware, our seven universities are within the top 400 of the 15,000 such institutions, which by any measurement is extraordinarily high. However, it can shift in terms of peer review and the reputation the university has with people across the world who may neither have been to Ireland nor be actively engaged or communicating with Irish researchers or Irish universities.
The rankings are significant, are market indicators and certainly affect the attitude of people who wish to come to Ireland to study or who choose not to do so because the rankings are below those that obtain in other countries. They cannot be ignored, any more than can any food or restaurant guide, but nor can they be taken as being verbatim and infallible. With this in mind, the European Union decided there should be some kind of multi-ranking system within the Union and beyond, in the European space as it were. As part of the Irish priorities for our Presidency, I have proposed to advance this particular proposal, which I believe was one of the questions raised by Senator Healy Eames in her contribution. Quite frankly, I do not expect to bring this to a conclusion but I hope to get an open and frank debate about the value of another ranking system. It probably would be more valuable were it to extend beyond the boundaries of the European Union and were to embrace countries other than the 27, soon to be 28, member states.
The second question, raised by Deputy O'Brien, concerned regional clustering and this island would serve as a very good example of same. For example, Letterkenny Institute of Technology might benefit as much from collaboration and clustering with colleges of further education and the new University of Ulster in Northern Ireland as it might with the nearest institution in the Republic, which is the Institute of Technology Sligo. In geographical terms, east-west collaboration and clustering should be considered just as much as north-south collaboration and clustering. By way of example, I suggest this is the kind of point we are making. If it makes sense in a common geographical or common linguistic space, such as, for example, between Flanders and the Netherlands, to create clustering in such areas to strengthen collaboration and achieve better outcomes, that in a sense is what regional clustering means.
I already have referred to Senator Healy Eames's question regarding the Erasmus for All programme. She asked a question pertaining to the observations made by the recent visitor to the Seanad about investment in education during a time of recession or downturn. Ireland, with the Skillnets and JobBridge programmes, has some of the most market-friendly instruments in that area. They basically address people who are actively qualified in the labour market but who have found they no longer are employed in the sector for which they trained. I refer the Senator to the JobBridge website to get the details in this regard but typically, someone like a quantity surveyor who had been working in the construction sector can get, through a combination of placement and training over a 30-week period by educational providers - both institutional public sector and private sector providers because the scheme was invited for tender - the requisite training, work experience and placement and can transfer himself or herself back into a paid job in the market, where there are existing scarcities.
