No. The Department will consider and will have regard to absolutely everything. One of the things we do not want to do, by virtue of the introduction of any measure, is for people who are already participating in the scheme to feel threatened. In many cases these are retired people and will have to make a declaration of interests. I stayed in digs myself when I was in college and the person I was staying with was retired and derived an income from that arrangement. It has come back into vogue much more in recent ye…

Again, this is a matter in the first instance for the Minister for housing. I am sure there are very good elements in the Deputy's Bill and I am not saying there are not. I understand what the Deputy is saying. However, I would caution against the kind of narrative - I am not suggesting for one minute that Deputy Farrell is saying it - that digs are somehow a last resort. They should not be spoken of with that terminology or phraseology, that when everything else has run out, there are digs. For a lot of people, th…

I thank Deputy Boyd Barrett for raising matters on the cost of supporting students and higher education tuition fees. As the Deputy will be aware and will appreciate, at this time it is not possible to provide an indication of the measures that may be introduced in budget 2025. However, in advance of budget 2025, I will be publishing an options paper which will set out the various possible measures to reduce the cost of attending further and higher education for families and students. I will have regard to these op…

I am sure Deputy Boyd Barrett would accept that we are on the one page on this issue. I never thought I would be on the same page as People Before Profit on anything but I imagine that the Deputy would subscribe to the idea that where resources are limited and finite, they should be targeted toward the people who need them most. Thus, it is on a means-based, targeted system, which is what we have at the moment. In recent years, the Taoiseach and former Minister, Deputy Harris, has been on a pathway to do that with …

All options will be on the table when I discuss this matter with the Ministers, Deputies Donohoe and McGrath. Regarding Deputy Boyd Barrett's comment about the 19th century, if we had a 19th-century approach to third level education, I would never have had the chance to go to university because I did not go to a private school. That is the reality. This country has been transformed through investment in primary, secondary and tertiary education. This has allowed people from backgrounds similar to mine to go to univ…

I thank the Deputy for his warm words. In 2022, two new capital infrastructure programmes were launched to provide for significant investment in further education and training, FET. These programmes are the FET college of the future major projects fund and the strategic infrastructure upgrade fund. The college of the future major projects fund will support projects that can help drive reform of the FET sector, including through consolidation of provision, the integration of further education and training, the reali…

I agree with the Deputy. One of the statistics that bears testimony to what he is saying is that in a very short period, the budget for FET has grown from €5 million to €65 million. This comes from the creation of the Department, which was a commitment in the programme for Government. Let us be realistic, when all of this was part of the remit of the Department of Education, further education was lost, to an extent, particularly in the context of the capital requirements because there were so many other competing d…

It is important to point out as well that there was a devolved grant scheme, which was administered by SOLAS but came from the Department, of just over €8 million from which the Cavan and Monaghan ETB benefited to the tune of under €500,000. It is small money in the overall context, but it is certainly an awful lot of money when you are looking for it. It is a lot of money in terms of making sure the basic infrastructure requirements that are needed for the trainees and the employers to whom Deputy Smith refers can…

Ireland's national AI strategy, AI - Here for Good, launched in 2021, outlines how Ireland can be an international leader in the use of artificial intelligence to benefit the economy and society. The strategy is founded on three core principles, namely, adopting a human-centric approach to the application of AI, staying open and adaptable to new innovations and ensuring good governance to build trust and confidence for innovation to flourish. A key enabler to support AI adoption is to ensure our workforce is prepar…

I do not disagree with the Deputy, particularly in the context of the European Union's European Year of Skills and the volume of skills that either cannot be met or are under threat. AI has the best of both worlds. It is something to be embraced but it is also something to which we will have to adapt in our education system, particularly in further and higher education. I do not disagree with anything said by the Deputy in that context. I met with representatives from Skillnet during the week. It provides an absolu…

I thank Deputies Stanton and Durkan for their inventions. Going back to what Deputy Bruton said regarding what happened at the committee with the consultancy firms, I will certain review it and have a look at it. However, "Yes" is the answer. Deputy Stanton referred to this being a fourth industrial revolution. The last time, we had the introduction of robotics and all of a sudden people who were on assembly lines were made irrelevant and redundant and were put on a scrapheap. That is not where we want to get to. N…

That is fine.

Fostering inclusion is a core pillar of Future FET: Transforming Learning, the national further education and training strategy 2020-24. It identifies the needs of people with disabilities as a primary focus, acknowledging the need for more consistent support for this group. Widening participation is also a national target under the strategic performance agreements for 2022-24 agreed between SOLAS and the 16 education and training boards. The 2022 target of 16,788 learners from priority groups was exceeded, with th…

They are practical questions. I will come back to the Deputy about them. Regarding toilets in public places, for a lot of places of learning, whether FETs, universities or ETBs, it depends on their ownership, but the building regulations apply to them. If they are public buildings, there is need to have regard to all users and all people's ability to be mobile, regardless of who they are or where they come from. If there is a specific issue of which the Deputy is aware, he can tell me about it afterwards and I will…

It is interesting that the Deputy has raised this issue. I had a discussion yesterday on the fact that if a child enters primary school, requires assistance and gets a special needs assistant, moves on to the second level system and has access to the same level of support and physical supports, whether sensory rooms or quiet spaces, that need does not stop when he or she transitions to third level. Work will have to be done in this space. In the other Department, the Department of Education, much of the focus, quit…

I will answer the question regarding nursing and medicine first. Ensuring an appropriate pipeline of suitably qualified professionals in nursing and medicine is a key priority for me and my Department. I want to build on the progress made in the past few years in expanding the number of places in these disciplines. In 2020 and 2021, in response to particular circumstances relating to the pandemic, temporary once-off places were created. In nursing, 134 places were created in 2020 and 205 were created in 2021. Recog…

I am sorry to disappoint the Deputy-----

There is continuous engagement between our Department, the Department of Health and the HSE with regard to workforce planning and our burgeoning population in view of the fact that the economy has been completely revived since 2011. I know the Deputy and her party like to create the impression that everybody is leaving the country, but the reality is that they are not. We have a growing population with growing needs. People are living longer and older, which is a great thing. We know, as a Government, that we will …

I do not agree there is any problem with foreign students coming into Irish universities. Plenty of Irish pharmacists, doctors and physiotherapists train in Scotland, Wales and England every year. This has been the case for some time. That is a good thing. I do not agree with that at all. The Deputy referred to it being underfunded. I accept that there is a figure to which we would all like to get. It would be appropriate for the Deputy to recognise that in the past two budgets, the former Minister, now Taoiseach, …

With regard to population, I take my statistics from the Central Statistics Office. I represent a rural constituency. The Deputy knows as well as I do that every district electoral division has experienced an increase in population. This cant that people are leaving the country is just not true.