Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 September 2023
84. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science his plans to further expand further and higher education in County Clare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40657/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraI ask the Minister to give an update on his plans to further expand further and higher education in County Clare. I would be grateful if he would make a statement on the matter.
I thank Deputy Wynne for this question. I look forward to visiting County Clare shortly. I hope to do so in the next month. Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board, LCETB, provides a broad range of further education and training options at levels 1 to 6, including literacy, community education, post-leaving certificate courses, Youthreach, training for the employed and the unemployed, and apprenticeships. Further education and training provision in County Clare, as across the country, is supported through a range of funding pots, including the national recovery and resilience plan, the action plan for apprenticeships, the adult literacy for life strategy and the Future FET: Transforming Learning strategy. I am pleased to say that this investment has supported the enhancement of the further education and training college at the Ennis campus, which I was delighted to visit in the last year or so. It has enabled us to grow the number of traineeships and apprenticeships in hairdressing and electrical on the campus. Additionally, my Department and I are committed to capital investments that will modernise and upgrade further education and training infrastructure across County Clare. All 16 education and training boards, including LCETB, have in place a strategic performance agreement with SOLAS from now to 2024. This sets out what they wish to achieve over the course of that period.
In respect of higher education, Ennis is now a university town because the Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest, TUS, has a campus in Ennis serving County Clare. Previously, County Clare lacked a university presence of its own and was traditionally served by higher education institutions such as the University of Limerick, Mary Immaculate College and the University of Galway. However, with the creation of TUS on 1 October 2021, that has changed. The TUS Ennis campus offers two courses in social care work, with around 50 students enrolled.
I know that LCETB is working on several applications for upgrading existing facilities across County Clare, including in Scarriff and elsewhere. There is potential to do more at the TUS campus in Ennis. I look forward to having an opportunity to visit it in the coming weeks and to discuss this matter further with the Deputy.
I look forward to welcoming the Minister to County Clare soon. I know he had provisionally planned to be there recently. I am interested in that event taking place as soon as possible.
I thank the Minister for the information he provided in his reply. I acknowledge his work in making County Clare a university county, as he stated, and making Ennis a university town. Many people were involved in that campaign for a long time. I take this opportunity to acknowledge their hard work in the House. The TUS campus in Ennis currently offers social care work courses up to levels 7 and 8, as well as a business degree in collaboration with LCETB outside the traditional CAO process. I welcome this move because it has opened up many opportunities for people in County Clare. I meet many young constituents who are crippled with anxiety over the leaving certificate and points. Anything to ease that burden and create alternative pathways into degree programmes should be welcomed and celebrated. For that, I commend the Minister and TUS. The university also offers a complement of programmes. We are on the cusp of something huge in the mid-west. I do not want the opportunity offered by offshore renewables to be lost, which I will address more in my next contribution.
I am excited about the new tertiary degrees. We have set up a national tertiary office. There are now 23 degrees which can be accessed by starting in further education with a guarantee of being able to complete it in higher education. Nobody cares or asks what points you got in the leaving certificate. You are assessed on your suitability in different ways, such as interviews and portfolios. More than 800 people have already applied to undertake those degrees. This morning, I will announce that we will double the number of courses in which this option is available for next September. There is real progress to try to get beyond the national obsession with points and the impact that has on students and their well-being. Specifically, in the Deputy's constituency of Clare, I wish to join her in thanking TUS for putting its hand up and offering one of the first tertiary degrees in business in Ennis in collaboration with LCETB. It has shown real leadership in facilitating this exciting opportunity for people in Ennis to get a degree outside the CAO system.
TUS also provides a degree in aircraft maintenance engineering in Shannon in collaboration with a major local employer, Atlantic Aviation Group. It also collaborates with another organisation in Shannon called Atlantic Air Adventures.
Before the recess, the Shannon Estuary economic task force report was launched in Ardnacrusha. This terrific plan seeks to inject a new lease of life into many areas of the mid-west. I commend the excellent work of all who gave their time freely to put it together. The report highlights several opportunities and cites the potential to create approximately 50,000 new jobs over the next 15 years. It is vital that we grab this opportunity by both arms and inject this sorely needed employment into County Clare. In this vein, it is essential that people with the relevant skills are trained and ready to go as locally as possible. Third level education has been delivered to Ennis and Shannon; now it is time to be ambitious and go further west. A satellite campus in west Clare that would be a centre of excellence for training and apprenticeships with respect to the erection and upkeep of our floating offshore wind capacity would be a strong asset to the further and higher education offering in the mid-west. I ask the Minister to engage with the relevant stakeholders - me, my Oireachtas colleagues in County Clare, our councillors, TUS and the ETB - to create this facility, which would revolutionise and reinvigorate some of the energy in west Clare.
I am happy to explore that idea with Deputy Wynne and to have a meeting with the relevant stakeholders. The proposal needs to come through various education and training boards, universities and others. I see huge potential when it comes to renewable energy and offshore wind. Often, we talk about climate in terms of all the challenges it poses, which it does - it is the biggest crisis the world is facing - but there is also huge opportunity in new education, new jobs and the green economy. Geographically, west Clare is well placed for that. I am happy to further explore this with the Deputy and take any meeting on the matter.
