Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 March 2022
45. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science when he will bring a sustainable funding model to Cabinet; the reason for the delay in publishing the economic evaluation of the Cassells report in advance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12746/22]
View answerI have been asking the Minister to publish the economic evaluation of Cassells report since it came back from the EU at the beginning of last summer. He has repeatedly stated he will be bringing proposals to Cabinet for a sustainable funding model for higher education and he will then publish the report. When will he bring these proposals to Cabinet? Why can he not publish a draft copy of the report in advance?
I want to say at the outset, and perhaps we will have time to get into it during Question Time, that I look forward to working with all Members of the House and all spokespersons on a number of the issues we will have to address arising from the Ukrainian situation, in terms of supporting students including those who are already here. I know this is an issue on which Deputy Conway-Walsh and I will want to work together. We will have a lot of work to do on English language supports. I wanted to say this on my first opportunity to do so in the Dáil.
I am very committed to resolving the issue of the funding model for higher education. It is a priority issue. It is essential for ensuring that our higher education institutions can effectively meet high standards of quality and achieve critical outcomes for our economy and society. I will bring forward a proposal on a funding model to Government, which will be implemented as part of budgets. Implementation will entail the sector delivering strengthened performance and enhanced outcomes based on a robust reform agenda. The Deputy would expect this of me. Students and taxpayers would also expect this. This approach will be informed by the comprehensive economic evaluation of funding options which, as the Deputy said, has been carried out under the auspices of the European Commission's structural reform support programme.
I brought this matter to the Cabinet committee on economic recovery shortly before Christmas. This allowed me the opportunity to explore key issues with Government colleagues including the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste. It was agreed that I and the Department would engage with the Department for Public Expenditure and Reform and the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, to inform the Government's consideration, in particular undertaking technical work to update costings reflecting relevant funding decisions in the most recent budget and other issues. I am please to inform the Deputy this work is nearing finalisation. This work has sought to robustly assess the assumptions underpinning the economic evaluation and to take account of the significant levels of State funding which have been invested in higher education and student support in recent years.
It is my intention to bring final proposals for funding and reform of higher education arising from this work to Government very shortly. I mean "very shortly" sincerely. I am very clear that, from a policy perspective, addressing the sustainability of the higher education system must proceed in tandem with measures which address the costs of education and ensure they are never a barrier to accessing higher education.
I will absolutely work in every way I can to ensure that Ukrainians who are coming here and who are very welcome here will have access to further and higher education.
By delaying the publication of the report the Minister is impeding the work of the education committee. The committee has dedicated weeks of hearings on the future of funding of higher education. These hearings were scheduled on the assumption the information would not be withheld and that it would be available. The report is an economic valuation paid for by public money. There is no commercial or privacy consideration to justify delaying it. The Minister is forcing the committee to work in the dark. We have had representative bodies of universities and the technological sector as well as trade unions and student unions all wondering why we have not been provided with the report. It is the most important document for dealing with the current funding in higher education. I and many others working in the sector would appreciate a clear explanation for why this is the case. It would make it much more productive for the committee if we knew what had come back from Europe.
I take the point the Deputy makes and the spirit in which she makes it. I certainly want to work with the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. I assure Deputy Conway-Walsh that the new funding and reform framework will be provided to the Oireachtas committee once the Cabinet has considered the matter. It will be published along with the DG REFORM-sponsored economic assessment report on the sustainability of higher education and the SUSI review. I believe the Deputy will agree there have been many reports on higher education funding in recent years. I do not wish to just publish another report. I am trying not only to publish the economic assessment but to get the Government to make big decisions that will allow for multiannual inclusive processes allowing implementation to commence. I know from engaging with the sector this is what it wants also.
All of us in this House, including me, accept there is a gap to be closed in sustainable funding and core funding. We also all accept there is work to be done on the costs of education. We can debate how best to do this. I want to try to publish the report alongside an implementation process and decisions. This is why I need to brief Cabinet colleagues and make a Cabinet decision. I assure the Deputy that straight after this the next group to be briefed will be the Oireachtas committee. I will work with the Deputy collaboratively on the matter.
I understand the implementation is absolutely important and we have to get this right. It is fundamental to the future of education. Today we had trade unions and the Union of Students of Ireland, USI, before the committee. They were unable to engage with the economic report and how we might address the underfunding in education. Instead we discussed the effects of underfunding. ICTU spoke of the creeping privatisation of the sector over the past ten years, when the Minister has been in government. The TUI highlighted that in those ten years we have seen student numbers rise 28% while staff numbers fell 8%. The USI highlighted the fact that most universities get more funding from private sources than they do from the State. The Irish Federation of University Teachers, IFUT, raised the fact that in the late 2000s two of our universities were ranked in the top 100 internationally and one was in the top 50. We now have no institutions in the top 100. The fall in the rankings is directly linked to systemic underfunding. The most obvious way in which the underfunding manifests itself is through the student to staff ratio in all the institutions.
I am following with interest, and I believe there is value in, the work the committee is doing. Perhaps not everybody in the sector will agree with the following but let me be very clear on my position. This will not be new money for old rope. It will have to be accompanied by a reform agenda. To be very clear to the sector, I accept there is an issue with core funding that needs to be addressed. I also accept and know that reforms will be required in the sector. These are reforms to deliver on a number of issues we discuss in the House on a regular basis, including a more inclusive education system, a system that is more open and responsive to the needs of people with disabilities and additional educational needs, and a system that recognises that learners come in many different shapes and sizes that need to be accommodated, such as part-time students, mature students, online learning and flexible learning. I accept there are funding challenges in some areas. I will also say on the floor of the Dáil we now have funding back at peak levels. We have also started the journey of improving student supports in a range of areas. I am excited about the next piece of the jigsaw, which is once and for all settling the question as to what a sustainable funding model looks like for Ireland and getting on with implementing it after years of people debating this point.
