I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Niall Collins, and his officials to the meeting. I thank them for the briefing documents they have provided to members. I will invite the Minister of State to make his opening statement and then members can ask general questions on Vote 45. He will have five minutes to give his presentation.
Vote 45 - Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised)
I thank the Chair and members of the committee for the opportunity to speak to them this evening to present the 2024 Revised Estimates for the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. My officials have provided a briefing on our Estimate to the secretariat of the committee which hopefully will be of assistance to members.
The Estimate we are presenting to the committee today provides for a gross allocation of €4.26 billion for use this year by the Department. The allocation is broken down as €3.6 billion in current funding and €653 million in capital funding, which represents an increase of 4.2% on our allocation of €4.09 billion per the 2023 Revised Estimates. This makes our Department the sixth largest revenue budget and the fifth largest capital budget across Departments in 2024.
Our Revised Estimate includes a number of temporary allocations funded through the Ukraine contingency fund; the national recovery and resilience plan; and the European Regional Development Fund. When temporary allocations are excluded, the Department's core allocation for 2024 is €4.18 billion which represents an increase of €275 million or 7% on our core allocation for 2023 as published in the 2023 Revised Estimates.
The increased funding being provided in the Estimates will allow our Department to continue its investment in innovation, creativity, and inclusivity and ensure that we, along with our agencies, can respond to the key economic and societal challenges our country faces. As I am sure all members would agree, it is vital that we continue to invest in our people and ensure that we put in place the structures needed to enable them to realise their full potential.
As such, I am pleased to note that our Revised Estimates see an increase in core funding to the higher education sector of 9%. Specifically, this Estimate is providing more than €160 million in current and capital funding to this sector to fund a number of major priorities including €64.4 million to address the sustainable funding of higher education as set out in Funding the Future. This will bring the total committed core funding as part of Funding the Future to more than €100 million in just two budgets. This will improve student to staff ratios and strengthen capacity in the sector in addition to enhancing support services for students with greater alignment of provision to priority skills needs and the further development of tertiary programmes.
The funding also includes €5.2 million to continue to move the funding of existing medicine places to a sustainable basis and €3 million which will provide further increases in medicine places in higher education for Irish and EU students, co-funded by the Department and the Department of Health. Building on the investment in 2023, this additional funding has seen 120 additional students commence medicine in September 2023 over the 2021 baseline, and will increase opportunities for students to progress to study medicine in Ireland and build on our talent pipeline.
In recognition of the current cost-of-living struggles students face, we have invested €31 million to make a number of improvements to the student grant scheme. These changes include increases to student maintenance grants, effective from January, and a full restoration of maintenance grants for postgraduate students. Importantly, for the first time ever, fees for undergraduate part-time studies will now also be fully funded, thus benefittng eligible one-parent families, students with disabilities, and carers on low incomes as part of a brand-new pilot programme.
As the committee will recognise, the further and higher education sector is a very sizeable sector with more than 400,000 people engaged in learning across the landscape. Our Department plays a central role in responding to the skills shortages the economy is facing and in order to remain competitive, we must continue to invest in our people and our talent and provide opportunities for all in a way that works for each of us. The Revised Estimates 2024 see an investment of €1.5 billion in skills, reflecting an additional investment of €116 million in core funding. This investment includes an additional €67 million for the apprenticeship system to grow craft apprenticeship from 13,000 places in 2022 to more than 16,000 places in 2024. This will also reduce the time that apprentices wait for training and provide bursaries to increase access to apprenticeships for under-represented groups.
This budget recognises that having the right training, education and skills is key to reaching our climate targets. Our Department is supporting a range of initiatives to enable us to meet the challenges and skills needed for the green transition, including investing in training programmes needed in the areas of net-zero energy buildings and retrofit, e-mobility capability and offshore wind. Our Department is investing more than €10 million in Skillnet Ireland under Ireland’s European Social Fund, ESF, programme, which is known as employment, inclusion, skills and training, EIST. Through this investment, Skillnet Ireland’s networks will play a significant role in addressing skills shortages and the future world of work through expanded provision of upskilling and reskilling opportunities.
As we plan for the future and the accelerated pace of change, we must make sure that this budget helps to support a future for everyone by breaking down barriers to education. From September 2024, post-leaving certificate, PLC, fees will be removed to ensure learners across the country do not face charges when pursuing a PLC course. This builds on our decision to eliminate the €200 PLC levy in 2022.
We are providing an additional €2 million to expand the fund for students with disabilities and a further €1 million to implement the whole-of-government adult literacy for life strategy, which has the ambitious goal of halving the share of adults in Ireland with unmet literacy, numeracy and digital skills needs by 2030. I trust that this overview is of assistance to the committee. We are happy to take to take questions. I commend the Revised Estimate to the committee.
I call Deputy Mairéad Farrell.
I understand the first opening slot is for Fianna Fáil, so I am happy for Deputy O'Sullivan to start if he wants. I cannot wait to hear his questions.
Okay.
I thank the Chair and Deputy Farrell. I have two or three brief questions. I am really more interested in hearing what the Minister of State has to say rather than giving a long spiel. Initially, he mentioned investing in our people and talent and rightfully so. He mentioned that we are going to go from 13,000 to 16,000 places for craft apprentices. Is there any factoring in of a review of the payments that go to craft apprentices, particularly when they are perhaps progressing through the different stages of phase 2 off-the-job training? Is that factored into that growth?
My second question is also about apprentices. The Minister of State might give us an outline of the waiting lists for block release. We were told that Covid-19 was responsible for the backlog that was initially there. How we are going about tackling that? Is that waiting list reducing?
A vótáil has been called in the Dáil Chamber. Does the Minister of State want to answer that quickly and give the Deputy his reply? We will then break and take Deputy Farrell when we come back.
On rates of pay to apprentices, fundamentally, the apprenticeship relationship is employer-employee. The rates are in many instances set by sectoral agreements within the different sectors. Obviously, there are supports there for apprentices when they go on their off-the-job training, similar to many other students. We do not have a direct input on the rates of pay. It is a national social partnership exercise.
The Deputy asked about the backlog. At the end of December 2023, the backlog stood at 4,018. That was 3,919 at phase 2 and 99 at phases 4 and 6. In terms of reducing the backlog, in August of 2023, the waiting list was 7,578 of which the backlog was 5,257. By December of 2023, the total waiting list was 8,503 and the backlog had fallen to 4,018. I would have outlined previously at committee the actions we have taken. We have taken a number of actions, which will continue, and we have other actions we are going to deliver in 2024 to reduce the backlog. We are increasing the capacity of our education and training boards to provide a total of 9,106 places in 2024 as well as temporary and emergency delivery of 608 phase 2 places through higher education institutions and the subcontracting of 96 training places to colleges in Northern Ireland. Partnership with employers who have in-house training facilities is also going to be utilised on a temporary basis for 114 places. Basically, a huge focus has been put on trying to eliminate the list. We are pretty confident. We are making inroads into it. I have quoted for the Deputy how the backlog has fallen. We are pretty confident that the other measures I outlined to increase capacity will eliminate the list.
Thank you, Minister. We will suspend until after the vote.
Sitting suspended at 7.17 p.m. and resumed at 7.35 p.m.
We are back in public session. The next speaker is Deputy Ó Cathasaigh.
I welcome the Minister of State and his officials. I have a couple of issues I would like to run through. Subhead B15 jumped out. My usual process when looking through the Estimates is that I just look for the big variations in terms of percentages. Miscellaneous grants and services jumped by 320%. Whatever about a normal subhead jumping by that amount, I would like an explanation as to why there is a more than threefold jump. That is the first issue. I can list them all or-----
I will take that question on subhead B15, which relates to miscellaneous grants and services. It is made up of an allocation of €0.75 million under Housing for All, €0.6 million for accommodation, €0.55 million for Traveller apprenticeships, which are bursaries, and €0.2 million for what is described here as HE funding. I will supply the committee with a full breakdown of what comes in under each of those headings.
It is such a significant increase that I had an immediate reaction to it. I would like to see what it involves.
I will get that information for the Deputy.
I appreciate it. My next question is on student accommodation, which is a big issue across the country. There was good news recently in respect of three campuses. I have spoken to the Minister previously about my hopes for the likes of South East Technological University, SETU. I am sure the Chair shares those hopes; he has a track record on the issue. I am interested to know where we are going with that.
On subhead C4, which is the programme for research in third level institutions, I am slightly dismayed to see the allocation fall by -17%. This provision covers Science Foundation Ireland, SFI, and so on. I suspect the slack here has been taken up elsewhere. This is particularly pertinent because we were talking in the Dáil earlier today about the establishment of the new research agency, to be known as Taighde Éireann. Why is there such a fall in funding under this programme head?
A new metric is being included under lifelong learning, which is the percentage of 25- to 64-year-olds in lifelong learning. We have spoken about this previously. Ireland is very much mediocre in this area. Whereas we perform at or close to the top under most of the OECD's education metrics, when it comes to lifelong learning, we are very much mid-pack. Many of us here would like to see the Government pushing on with that. What targets are being applied in this area, where do we hope to get to and what is the plan to get there?
The reduction under subhead C4 reflects a transfer to subhead B12. The provision is all being kept within research activity. It is just a recategorisation and relates to moneys for the Irish Research Council, IRC. There is no net reduction in expenditure.
There is a good deal to go through on student accommodation. I will give the Deputy a high-level summary. As of November 2023, the total provision of purpose-built student accommodation stock stood at approximately 48,000 bed spaces. A total of 8,512 purpose-built student accommodation beds have been constructed since January 2020. Of those, 2,195 are public and 6,320 are private. Of the 2,195 public beds, 1,021 became available in 2023, comprising 674 in the University of Galway, 225 in UCC, nine in Trinity College Dublin and 83 in the University of Limerick. Construction of 456 private purpose-built student accommodation beds is completed, with a further 97 to open for the second semester of the 2023-2024 academic year.
With regard to the short-term activation, €61 million was approved in principle to unlock development of approximately 1,000 beds across a number of HEIs for delivery at the beginning of 2025, as we discussed previously. Some 30% of these units are to be made available at below market rates for the target cohort of students who need assistance.
DCU and Maynooth have completed their due diligence assessments and are progressing through a tender process; Maynooth is at the final business case stage and DCU is at the tender stage. It is anticipated that the universities of Limerick and Galway will shortly complete due diligence assessments of their projects. We have a grid that gives information on the planning permissions for bed spaces.
Deputy Farrell engaged with the Minister, Deputy Harris, on this point. Are we content that the TUs are in a position to borrow in order to develop purpose-built student accommodation?
We are writing to them. The Minister, Deputy Harris, has either written in the last day or two or is about to write to each TU to get them to tell us what their requirements are in the medium to long term. As members know, an exercise was carried out last year whereby €1 million was provided across all the TUs to help them to do a proper assessment of what their medium to long-term requirements are, and also to give the landscape as to what they have available currently. We are writing to them and asking them to come back to us with their proposals, and we will then view each of the proposals in terms of how we are going to apply capital to those over the coming years. It could be capital funding, public private partnership or a number of other avenues that will fund these.
When we talk about a borrowing facility for the TUs to develop this, what does that look like and where are they borrowing the money from? Do we have specificity on this?
The Housing Finance Agency has a facility available to it. The first thing is that we need to know exactly what they want and how much they need. The picture has been unclear and we want to go about it by taking a structured approach. As part of that exercise, we are also looking at streamlining design in terms of how we are going to approach this. The proposal is to write to them. They will come back to us and this will then be prioritised based on the presentations and submissions they make to us. There are a number of options available, including public private partnerships.
With regard to borrowing, there is the whole idea of on-balance sheet and off-balance sheet, and allowing them to borrow themselves. That is something which is still part of a discussion between our Department and the Department of public expenditure. There is also an ongoing review of the NDP, which is a conversation we are having with the Department of public expenditure, as is every other Department.
I want to circle back to that question on lifelong learning rates. I asked about the new metric but I was hoping to get an idea of where it is that we are hoping to get to. If we have a metric for where we currently are, what is the end goal?
The OECD skills strategy has been published and we are looking at it. We will get back to the Deputy with a note on that.
There is a grid that provides information on student accommodation. Since 2016, 14,079 purpose-built student accommodation beds have been built and work is under way on-site on an additional 7,023 bed spaces, of which 3,040 are publicly owned. Planning permission for a further 11,008 bed spaces has been obtained and a further 1,712 bed spaces are in the planning system at the moment. Therefore, as I have previously said, the total level of purpose-built student accommodation stock is currently about 48,000 bed spaces across the country. The grid shows what is completed and what it is on-site, the planning that has been granted and the planning that has been applied for, and we can furnish the committee with that after the meeting.
I thank the Minister of State for being so readily available to come before the committee. I know that any time we have asked the Minister of State, he is willing and able to come in front of the committee. However, it is regrettable the senior Minister is not here. I have not seen before on Revised Estimates that the Minister is not available to answer in regard to his Department. I have been on numerous committees before this one, and I even made sure to take a look at the committees that are ongoing this week to see which Minister was available to go in front of the committee. I appreciate that the Minister of State has taken the time but I do not think it is acceptable for the Minister not to be here. Nonetheless, I thank the Minister of State for coming in front of the committee.
My first question relates to subhead B17 on public private partnership costs. It identifies €40 million having been spent for 2023 and €39 million to be spent for 2024. Will the Minister of State confirm what that relates to and the names of the projects it relates to?
We will get the Deputy an exact note after the meeting and I will give her what information I have with me now. There are two bundles, the first of which is higher education PPP bundle 1. The six buildings which are being delivered by public private partnership bundle 1 are located at the Technological University Dublin campuses in Tallaght and Blanchardstown, the Munster Technological University campuses in Tralee and Cork, the Athlone campus of Technological University of the Shannon and the Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Dun Laoghaire. All projects are currently on programme and the estimate for completion is between Q4 of 2024 and Q2 of 2025.
Higher education PPP bundle 2 consists of five projects. Two projects are at the Atlantic Technological University campuses in Letterkenny and Galway, two at the SETU campuses in Waterford and Carlow and one at the Technological University of the Shannon in Limerick. Bundle 2 is currently at the tender-competitive dialogue stage and the construction price and inflation volatility in the construction market is presenting us with challenges. However, the procuring authority is working within the framework.
As I am limited on time, I will take that note. What exactly do the buildings relate to?
To conclude the point, the PPPs that are finished are at Grangegorman central and east quads, the Cork School of Music and the National Maritime College of Ireland. I am sorry to cut across the Deputy.
That is fine. It is interesting to hear about the National Maritime College, which is a fantastic college.
My question stems from the previous question from Deputy Ó Cathasaigh. Last week, we had a conversation with the Minister, Deputy Harris, in regard to technological universities and what their accommodation situation looks like going forward.
I am glad that that the Minister of State is aware of the difference between on-balance sheet and off-balance sheet. That is really welcome but we were discussing whether they can and will borrow. From what I understand, from speaking to the technological universities and the broader sector, they thought it would be going down the route of borrowing off-balance sheet. From what I understand from what the Minister said last week, that is not being considered at this poin and leaves two options. First, the Department may fund it 100%, but obviously that was not part of this year’s budget. I would find it hard to believe that the funding will suddenly appear overnight, although who knows? The second option is the PPPs. Are we realistically looking for PPPs for student accommodation for technological universities? I am very concerned by the cost and unaffordability of accommodation for students, and of course, with PPPs, that would continue. It is irresponsible that we are not hearing directly from the Minister on this, but I am obviously very thankful that the Minister of State has made it to this committee meeting. Is that the route we will be going down?
I also have a comment on the figures the Minister of State mentioned on the amount of purpose-built student accommodation. I did not get the chance to ask the Minister about this last week. Is there a breakdown on what is owned by vulture funds and what is not? I have been doing a piece of work on that and have been trying to find that out myself. It is a huge amount of work to try to get all that information. I have put together some kind of database, but I would like to think that the Minister would like to prioritise that kind of information through the Department as well.
We will have to come back to the Deputy on the issue of the vulture funds. We do not have that information readily available.
As the Deputy has rightly stated, TUs are on balance sheet. It is a significant issue to change that and to come off balance sheet.
It is through the CSO and Eurostat, is it not?
Yes. As the Deputy rightly pointed out, we can do PPPs or fund it through the budget. As I said earlier, like every other Department, we are currently in negotiations with the Department of public expenditure on the review of the NDP. That will present opportunities.
I also mentioned the Housing Finance Agency earlier. That is a link-up with the European Investment Bank. In October 2023, the European Investment Bank and the Housing Finance Agency agreed a new €434 million student accommodation financing initiative to support higher education institutions, HEIs, in the development of affordable student housing.
On that, was it not the case that many universities could already access borrowing from the European Investment Bank, before this was announced with big fanfare?
They could, but this is an additional borrowing capacity-----
Would the Minister of State not say that many of the universities are highly leveraged already?
Yes, they are.
I am not taking this out on the Minister of State.
I do have another question, which relates to subhead B15, which Teachta Ó Cathasaigh also mentioned. It is on various grants projects and, particularly, the capital grants for the universities. When I look at these from year to year, there seems to be new names for capital grants. I therefore wonder if they are the existing grants that have been given a new name so that they can be re-announced, or are they something entirely different? I would love to be surprised.
Is the Deputy asking about subhead B15?
Yes. When I was looking at the capital grants, I saw how from year to year there seems to be new names for the different grants. What I have seen from the Minister were things that I feel have been re-announced year on year. Are these completely new capital grants that are meant for something totally different, or have they been renamed so that they can be re-announced? That is basically what I am wondering. If they are totally new, I would be more than happy to see that.
Subhead B15 has not changed, but there is new money. Under Housing for All, there is €750,000 to promote awareness, particularly in the craft apprenticeship space. We have €1.15 million in dormant accounts funding and bursaries for Roma and Travellers, which are disadvantaged communities.
I am wondering if these are all totally new things that have not been in place before.
Well, these are new moneys under subhead B15, which relates to miscellaneous grants and services. That is current funding. Our capital funding subheads have stayed the same.
Is it particularly for the capital grants for universities? From what I understand, in the capital grants there are new names, but I am just wondering if they are new. I am happy to table a parliamentary question on that. I do find that it can be very difficult. An announcement can be made and it can be an extremely difficult process to find out if it is fully new, or if it is not fully new. It takes weeks to find out and, by that time, it will be old news. I have raised this directly with the Minister. I feel that it is irresponsible when it is money that has been previously announced. Yet, I thank the Minister of State very much for coming before the committee.
I have no questions. I thank the Minister of State and his officials for coming before this committee this evening and for the engagement.