I welcome the opportunity of speaking to both of those Bills which are being taken simultaneously and, essentially, do one and the same thing. The regional technical colleges, in the eyes of many people, are the last hope for the regions of Ireland and, in particular, for the west. The regions of Ireland are dying slowly and surely, and inexorably the population graph is downwards.
Apart from a brief period of resurgence in the late sixties and the early and mid seventies, every single census of population signals rural decline. Indeed, the preliminary results from the 1991 census indicates that the west has only two centres showing any signs of growth at present, Sligo and Galway.
The Minister of State was present, as I was, in Galway two weeks ago at the western bishops conference, where the theme was "survival through togetherness". We saw in very graphic terms the downward spiral, the inexorable decline, the rampant decay in the west and the fact that there is absolutely nothing on the horizon that would signal an end to that. Somebody from my own county, many years ago, wrote a book entitled Nobody Shouted Stop, and nobody has shouted stop thus far to the decay and the death of the west.
A drive through the most selected tracts of rural Ireland — indeed, through any tracts — will give a stark and vivid reminder of the decline and the decay. There are closed homesteads, dilapidated and abandoned farms, substandard and worsening road conditions, railway lines being ripped up, secondhand sleepers being used which are taken from the lines in the east, untended drainage channels, tumbledown derelict closed rural schools, and broken or non-existent sign posting. As a peripheral, region Ireland would always have tremendous disadvantages and enormous competitive challenges. As remote regions within Ireland the entire western seaboard will face particular challenges. However, the entire suction movement towards the centre is now very much accelerated by the passing of the Single European Act which provides for the completion of the internal market by the end of 1992. Rapid movement towards political union and economic and monetary union all increase the pace of events and certainly increase the challenges facing rural Ireland.
I know that politicians and EC officials will inevitably counterbalance the argument of the challenge by pointing out that while there are challenges there are also tremendous opportunities opening up for Ireland. However, the challenge and the threat is there. It is real and we have not even begun to face up to it. The challenge is that we are now part of an integrated Europe with a market of 340 million people; the challenge is that economically weak regions like Ireland will not be able to erect any protective barriers from now on; the challenge is that in such a competitive situation economic cannibalism prevails. Marketplace competition is the order of the day and only the fittest and most resilient will survive.
If the regions of Ireland have continued to decline under the more benign and protected economic climate up until now, there is absolutely no doubt but that Ireland as a whole and as a region — and particularly the regions within Ireland — will all become increasingly marginalised unless there is a calculated, immediate political decision to transfer from the Community and from the centre the necessary physical and human resources and the infrastructure to enable survival and development to occur.
Apart altogether from the inherent dangers of peripherality, this country will face even stronger competition within the next five years. The European centre for precision engineering was Czechoslovakia until it went into economic decline; crystal glass, tool making etc., were Czechoslovakian specialities; Romania was a huge operator in the agricultural field and a major producer of food; and Poland and Hungary were large extremely efficient industrial and commercial nations.
The economic decline in those countries and recent political developments all have given rise to what is but a temporary recession and setback. There is little doubt that as soon as these countries get their administrative, fiscal, productive and legislative systems up and running again and geared towards the modern Europe, they will be major competitive players on the larger European commercial map for the future. Within five years the full brunt of their competitive edge will be felt. It is obvious, therefore, that the economic centre of gravity will move very much to the east, again exacerbating Ireland's geographical and economic disadvantage.
One of the problems with Ireland is that we have failed to identify, to act upon and to exploit our areas of advantage. The Institut for Wirtschaftsforshung of Munich identified positive factors where Ireland does possess real economic advantage: the very modern telecommunications network, the general availability of labour, the availability and quality of education and training facilities, the favourable social climate, and the abundant availability of skilled labour. It is obvious, therefore, that we in Ireland should be concentrating on our areas of strength. In other words, we should be concentrating on the development of people's skills, their aptitudes and abilities. This is where education and particularly vocational education and technical education comes in and where the role of regional technical colleges will have to be further enhanced.
When the member states embarked on their policy of European integration it was recognised that one of the main purposes of this integration, cohesion, strength, or unity was to strengthen the capacity of the EC in science and technology. Science and technology is the area where there has been the greatest partnership between education and industry. It is business enterprises and industry which transform science and technology into economic and social progress. The role of the regional technical colleges is to translate their work into viable long term jobs and higher living standards.
Higher education and industry therefore must act together and must be more responsive to the general needs of the society surrounding them. We have in the regional technical colleges, strategically positional throughout the regions — in Letterkenny, Sligo, Athlone, Galway, Limerick, Tralee, Dundalk and Waterford — tremendous potential economic incubators and generators. That is why I welcome the general thrust of this Bill. It liberalises the colleges. I empathise with some of the sentiments of Deputies Dempsey and Boylan in that I agree that there should be a stronger linkage between the vocational education committees, the regional technical colleges and the Dublin Institute of Technology. I do not accept the argument that the vocational education committee structure has been the constraining influence in relation to the development of the regional technical colleges or the Dublin Institute of Technology. Rather, any constraint that has been put on them in relation to their development, any stultifying of their potential, has arisen more from a lack of resources than from any management structure that currently exists.
I appreciate that there is a natural desire on the part of the Regional Technical Colleges and the Dublin Institute of Technology for greater autonomy. I appreciate that in the eyes of some Regional Technical Colleges, vocational education committees are essentially second level management structures unsuited to the management of third level institutions, but I exhort the Minister on Committee Stage to look again at the possibility of strengthening the links between the vocational education committees and the new college structures. I take the points made in various submissions we have received from vocational education committees and the IVEA that they should not be blamed for the so-called limitation of the development of the third level colleges until now. It should be possible to accommodate both aspirations, to give them greater autonomy and still retain a somewhat stronger modicum of the vocational education committee input that exists at present.
I welcome this Bill because it enables the colleges to enter partnerships, to involve themselves in joint ventures, to get involved in commercial research and development, which has been very much part and parcel of the success of our universities since the universities were founded and particularly since the universities began to show some entrepreneurial flair and adventure in the general area of business, science and research. This Bill will allow the colleges to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the area they should be able to harness the strengths of the area and project an outward dynamic movement into the community — in other words, to breathe economic life into the community, to breathe hope, confidence and development into the regions. Do people expect too much from the regional and technical colleges? I do not believe so. They have the potential, the capacity and the ambition to deliver. We as legislators must do everything to encourage them at official level to face the challenges and to grasp the opportunities there; but if they are to face the challenges they will have to be given the resources by the Government and the European Community.
We have a very strong case for additional European Community funding, but the case has not been sufficiently strongly put at Commission level to achieve the necessary consciousness at EC level in relation to the obligation of the Community to this country by way of additional educational funding. This country has become the educational conveyor belt of the European Community, supplying top level graduates of certificate, diploma and degree level to feed the enterprise, the business and the economies of the stronger European Community countries. There is additional social funding and structural funding for the colleges if the case is strongly put. If we are to develop on our strength, which is our human resource, there is a obligation on the Community to recognise that with adequate funding for third level colleges so that every pupil coming from second level education will have an opportunity to go to third level college if he or she wishes. To date the colleges have not been given the resources. The real economic and social convergence within the European Community to date has been only minimal. We are fed on an ample diet of jargon in relation to convergence, integration and cohesion; but the success rate so far has been minimal in real terms.
Our living standards are only 67 per cent of the average of the European Community, yet our unemployment rate is double the EC average. In 1980 Irish living standards amounted to 64.5 per cent of the EC average measured in GDP terms. Despite all the talk of progress, this had only advanced to 67.3 per cent of the EC average by 1990. On the unemployment front Ireland, with 18.6 per cent of the workforce unemployed, has the highest unemployment figure in the European Community. Ireland is the only member of the European Community which had not recovered its employment level of 1980 by the year 1990. Ireland has to immediately seek specialisation in industrial and commercial areas where we can compete on an international scale.
If we are to develop as a country we need education at the highest level, education involving the development of people who have the skills and abilities to produce goods, to successfully market those goods, to produce services and to successfully market those services at home and abroad. We need to create a generation of people who can generate a spirit of enterprise in the general community, a generation who see economic opportunities and who have the confidence to exploit those opportunities. We need to see education as the dynamic which will encourage enterprise, which will encourage motivation in people who in turn will motivate other people to create more jobs. We need an education system which will encourage people to be innovative, to be versatile, to be flexible in their approach to problem solving. Quickly changing patterns also mean that there is an urgent need for emphasis on lifelong upgrading of skills and knowledge.
One of the biggest economic growth areas in the whole area of internationally traded services such as finance consultancies etc. is the third level sector, including the regional technical colleges. These colleges should continue to place emphasis on all areas of development such as data processing, computer servicing, education services, architectural and engineering consultancy work, etc.
Again, areas such as the greatly underdeveloped food industry, horticulture, forestry, mining and mineral exploration, the marine, inland fisheries, etc. are wide open for development and exploitation. I could envisage the regional technical college for Mayo — promised, but not delivered on by this Government — placing a major emphasis on something that is indigenous to the region, for example, tourism, with facilities based around language and cultural development, agri-tourism, adventure tourism, business tourism, etc.
At this juncture let me congratulate the new Minister, Deputy Davern, in his absence. I wish him well for the duration of his term of office as Minister for Education. We will suspend judgment on his performance until we see how he measures up. We have a full appreciation that in taking on the Education portfolio he is taking on one of the most challenging, if not the most challenging, most complex and most costly in terms of cost to the Exchequer of all of the portfolios. We wish him well in that.
As a Tipperary man he will also come under pressure to deliver the long promised regional technical college for Thurles. My colleague, Deputy Lowry, will be waxing lyrical and exhorting the Minister in a suitable direction later or when the debate resumes.
There are three priorities in terms of regional technical colleges — Tallaght, Thurles and Castlebar. Tallaght is a reality. Thurles and Castlebar are far from realities.
When Deputy Enda Kenny was Minister of State and sat where Deputy Fahey now sits, he told Dáil Éireann that he was very happy that a site had been acquired in Castlebar for a regional technical college and he did so on the assumption that, irrespective of who donned the mantle of Minister for Education, that would be delivered upon.
