Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 October 2023
77. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the steps he is taking to assist members of the Travelling community in accessing third level education; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44897/23]
View answerThis is a simple enough question for the Minister, but it is an interesting and important one. What steps is he taking to assist members of the Travelling community to access third level education, and will he make a statement on the matter?
I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I am committed to making progress in enhancing access, participation and success for learners across further education, apprenticeships and higher education. Recent data for 2021-22 indicate that the current number of new Traveller entrants to higher education is 52. The national access plan targets 150 new entrants to higher education from the Traveller community by 2028, so there is a lot of work we need to do collectively to get to that target. I also had a good meeting on this issue with Pavee Point in recent weeks.
Last year, I allocated a fund of €1.35 million over three years to a pilot programme to support learners from the Traveller and Roma communities. The key objective of this funding stream is to increase the participation and progression of Traveller and Roma students in higher education. The fund can be used to support the development of community-based partnerships with the Traveller and Roma communities. The impact of that will be reported by the Higher Education Authority, HEA, in quarter 1 of| 2024. I think that word, "impact", is really important. We all want to get to the same point here. We have had targets for Traveller participation in higher education for many years, and over successive Governments, but we have never yet got there. Measuring against initiatives and the HEA reporting on that will be key to success.
The project plans show there are a diverse range of projects and activities being carried out at both pre- and post-entry levels. A number of other social inclusion measures are aimed at supporting Traveller and Roma learners as part of our action plan for apprenticeships. This includes the Traveller and Roma apprenticeship incentivisation programme. To date, 22 Travellers and one employer have been funded. While an apprenticeship involves a paid employment contract, there may also be associated costs for apprentices, such as buying tools or equipment. To help with this, the Traveller apprenticeship incentivisation scheme and the new social inclusion bursary will provide sums of between €2,000 and €2,500 to apprentices for such costs. There are also a number of programmes and strategies such as Youthreach and the adult literacy for life strategy that are vital in supporting members of the Traveller and Roma community. This includes supporting learners to develop literacy, numeracy and soft skills, in line with the further education and training strategy.
I am conscious that the requirements of full-time education can sometimes provide a barrier to many people, including members of the Travelling community. That is why I am pleased we have a new initiative in place from September 2024 around part-time education and the removal of fees.
I thank the Minister for that positive response. As a former lecturer in the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, GMIT, in Galway, I saw very few from the Travelling community passing through the built environment section as students. When I was working in the private sector I experienced Travellers who had gone to third level education, got their engineering degrees, and were out on sites working and contributing to society. They were also models for other young Travellers who might be contemplating third level education. That is one of the issues. They may feel there is a barrier or attitude that if they go to university they will not be treated properly. The most important thing is that we need a system where Traveller students in universities are sent out as ambassadors into the communities, secondary schools and other areas, to explain their experience in education to other Travellers. I understand this is happening with some success in the university in Galway. Maybe it is something that should be looked at so every college and university would have an ambassador type situation to try to encourage more people.
I agree with all of that, and join with the Deputy in commending the University of Galway on all of the good work it is doing. I have had the opportunity to meet them on a few occasions specifically on the subject of Traveller participation. What I like about what they do is that it is not just about just getting somebody in the door. It is about getting somebody out the other side, through the education process and into the world of work. I think we are doing a reasonable amount, quite a lot in many ways, at third level with bursaries and incentivisation and having this as a priority area in the national access plan. We are reporting against it through the HEA. We are up for doing more and want to do more. We also have to be honest, however. The Deputy mentioned secondary schools. A lot of the barriers and blockages are encountered long before second and third level education. There needs to be a joined-up approach to all of the different blockages and barriers somebody may experience throughout their life. That is why I am working closely with my colleague, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, and his Department on the successor to the national Traveller and Roma inclusion strategy. It is a way to look at things in the round, and how we remove any block or barrier at any stage of the education journey for our students, in this case in particular for members of the Traveller community.
I agree wholeheartedly with the Minister's approach. It is important and a matter of changing attitudes. We will reap the benefits with more people coming into the workforce and more education within the Travelling community, which will be of benefit to everybody and to create that as a norm rather than an exception. I cannot let the moment go without asking how the Minister got on in Mountbellew at the agricultural college. If they were to do veterinary courses we would have a situation where people locally, including Travellers, could become vets in Galway or across the country. I know the Minister met them last Friday and I wonder how that went.
The Deputy shows admirable ability in terms of how he got from here to there.
I was pleased to visit Mountbellew in recent days and honoured to open the Aleen Cust library, named after the first female veterinary surgeon in Ireland and the UK, who was an incredible woman. I have been reading up on her in recent days. I was delighted to meet the team there and to see the good work going on in Mountbellew.
The factual position is the Government wants to expand the number of veterinary medicine places. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and I conducted an exercise in which we asked the higher education sector to put forward ideas of what more it could offer. A number of projects came forward that were deemed to be viable at the first stage. One was Mountbellew working with Atlantic Technological University in Donegal, one was University of Limerick and one was the South East Technological University’s plan for Kildalton college. All of them will be assessed by our two Departments and considered in the context of the NDP review. I hope to be in a position to provide an update towards the end of the year. I am very impressed by what is going on in Mountbellew and it was good to be there.
