I propose to take Questions Nos. 63 to 65, inclusive, and 68 together.
The Universities Act, 1997 contains a provision for all of the Universities to borrow within a framework agreed with the Higher Education Authority. This framework, which was agreed with the Department of Education and Skills and the now Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, has been in operation for many years. A similar provision to allow Institutes of Technology to borrow is contained in the Institutes of Technology Act, 2006, however this provision has not been commenced.
Universities are classified as outside General Government Balance for Eurostat purposes, while Institutes of Technology are classified as within. This arises primarily from the difference in funding sources in the two sectors, with the university sector raising a greater proportion of income from non-State sources.
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.
The position in relation to Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) is that while some campus companies associated with WIT undertook borrowing up to 2012, that no longer remains the position since the formal incorporation of those campus companies into WIT.