I have had a number of engagements with UCD students' union. I have no issue meeting with that body. I will certainly ask the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to meet with those students also. I am sure he will have no issue doing so either. The reference to state aid rules related to the fact that private developers could say they can build accommodation too. I am trying to change the model. I genuinely believe we need to have more publicly funded institutions owning their own accommodation. I r…

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter with me and for raising it on one of my many visits in recent weeks to Drogheda and Dundalk, where the ETB has highlighted this as an important matter. The Deputy and I both want to create an education system that is truly inclusive and that allows everyone to reach their full potential no matter what their background is or whether they have a disability. Some good things are in place around funds for students with disabilities. We have had new initiatives to support autis…

I thank Deputy O'Dowd. According to my note, 77 personal assistants are directly employed by the ETBs. I am open to correction on this but the note also indicates, and the information available to me suggests, that the majority of personal assistants are employed externally and not directly by ETBs. However, 77 are directly employed by ETBs. The figure for the Louth-Meath ETB in the Deputy's area is 15. That gives a context to all this because 3,829 students in 2021 accessed the fund for students with disabilities.…

They are not the only ones. I thank Deputies Ó Murchú and O'Dowd for raising this important issue. Without wanting to stray into the industrial relations, IR, space because of the proximity between this discussion and those discussions that will take place at the IR forum, I acknowledge on the record of the Dáil the excellent work done by personal assistants, PAs. Those are not platitudes; I know from travelling around the country, from talking to students and from meeting PAs that there are people in further educa…

I am always delighted to provide Deputy Dillon with an update but I do not have a huge amount of an update since we last met on Monday in Castlebar. That was a good day and we had the clear decision that Castlebar, County Mayo, will be the home of a new further education college of the future, which we call a FET college of the future. What that means to people in Castlebar and Mayo is that this is one of the ten locations throughout the country that will be developed as a major hub of FET. I was pleased to be in C…

The first ten locations are in the process of being announced. We are up to about five or six locations and all ten will have been announced within the next week. What then has to happen is all ten need to work intensively with SOLAS, their ETB and my Department to prepare the next phase. These are multimillion euro projects and this is a scale of investment in FET we simply have not seen before. We need to be sure they can be compliant with public spending codes and we need to tease through the detail of the propo…

I am not in any way concerned about the timelines but it is important to be upfront and blunt about them, which I have been in every visit I have made to a location that has been chosen as an FET college of the future. These are multi-year projects. I cannot say whether it will be four, five or six years but that is the range of years we are talking about. People in Castlebar and Mayo will see progress and there will be an ability to provide regular updates and the like. I, too, pay tribute to Paddy McGuinness who …

I send him all our best wishes. On student accommodation, I spoke to the president of the ATU, Orla Flynn, and the chair of the governing authority, Maura McNally, on this as recently as Monday. Before I was in Castlebar I met them in Galway. It is clear as a result of the Government decision yesterday that technological universities can and should prepare to submit plans for student accommodation in 2023. On Tuesday we allocated €1 million to the technological universities to bring in the capacity for any expertis…

I thank Deputy Durkan for raising this matter. One of the big things my Department is trying to do is not just to replicate the work that would have been done by the Department of Education previously but to be a Department that interacts between further and higher education and industry. We do this through the regional skills forums, which we have in every region. These involve representatives of businesses, universities, colleges and the education and training boards. These forums meet, plan and map out what is r…

I think there is and this is certainly an area we are looking at. We are working with the Department of Social Protection. For example, in the area of construction, the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and I have partnered with the Construction Industry Federation, CIF, to do exactly as the Deputy said in respect of identifying people who may be seeking employment and wishing to be employed and to be able to team them up where there are vacancies in the economy. I refer in particular to the area of construction, where w…

I will do that and, indeed, we are doing that. Professor Tom Collins is heading a working group under the Funding the Future framework specifically looking at part-time study and eligibility and access concerning student supports. I agree with the Deputy, and I hope we can find a way forward in 2023 on the issue of SUSI. I will keep in touch with the Deputy in this regard. Turning to the question from Deputy Durkan, I am pleased our education system has worked to accommodate and facilitate people fleeing a war in t…

I was pleased to launch the new national access plan on 31 August 2022. This plan is genuinely the most ambitious vision we have ever set out for an inclusive and diverse higher education sector. It builds on the real and substantial progress made through the implementation of previous plans. I thank all those who worked so hard to make this a reality. It also recognises, however, that there are clearly significant barriers still existing for many people in accessing higher education and we must break them down. Th…

The Deputy is entirely right. Issues around access and disadvantage start much earlier than when people reach the age to attend third level. This is why the national access and inclusion plan engages with other Departments, including the Departments of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Education and Social Protection to look at barriers that people can encounter earlier in life and to try to break these down. I enjoyed my visit to North Presentation Secondary School with the Deputy. It is so im…

I thank my colleague, Senator Kyne, for raising this important matter in respect of GRETB's plans for a new and enlarged further education and training campus in Galway city. I echo the Senator's views. This is an extremely exciting proposition because I understand what GRETB wants to do is to build a brand new college of further education, what we call a further education and training, FET, college of the future. This will enable capacity in further education in Galway to be increased by approximately 40% and, as …

I look forward to visiting Galway with the Senator next week. I should also acknowledge, as I know the Senator would, the work of Councillor Michael Mogie Maher, who now chairs GRETB and who is enthusiastic about these levels of investment. It is an exciting time for further education and training around the country. We have moved from a situation in which further education and training colleges were applying for money to fix leaky roofs or broken toilets to one in which there is investment at a scale that allows u…

I thank Senator Byrne for raising this matter. I hope he will excuse me for taking it in the unavoidable absence of the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan. However, I am particularly pleased to take it because, as the Senator has rightly pointed out, it is a part of the world I know well and the station serves a part of the world I represent in Dáil Éireann. I am therefore pleased to have an opportunity to provide a further update on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan. As Senator Malcolm Byrne right…

I thank the Senator. That sounds like a very reasonable suggestion. I will convey it to the Minister of State and his officials in the OPW to see if they can link with him on when such a meeting could be arranged. I echo the Senator's comments about the vital work being carried out by the Coast Guard. It is only right and proper that the Government supports it in its vital work by providing it with facilities that are fit for purpose. We are all very clear that the current facilities in Courtown are not fit for pur…

I thank Deputy Berry for raising the initiative. This is the week that refunds have started flowing into students' accounts, which is the €1,000 refund. We will also see the bonus student grant payment on 16 December, and all student grants rising by between 10% and 14% from January. I will look at the two specific groups the Deputy has referred to. I must point out that this is the first reduction in student fees in some 27 years. We will also have other measures, such as the student assistance fund, to assist the…

I thank Deputy Cannon for raising this issue. The Deputy is so right that there has been huge progress when it comes to further education and training. We are all proud of what happens in that sector but we are not proud of the infrastructure in which people have to operate. As the Deputy has rightly said, GRETB has submitted a very good proposal relating to Mervue in Galway city, beside the ATU, which would significantly increase capacity and improve infrastructure. I expect to have an update on that project in th…

I am delighted to have this opportunity to speak during Science Week. I thank the Business Committee for scheduling the debate. I acknowledge that Deputy Naughten specifically sought this debate, which he does on an annual basis. It is a very worthwhile exercise to have such a debate in our national Parliament during Science Week. As we continue to navigate our way through a global pandemic and climate emergency, it is essential that we continue to place science and research at the heart of our discussions here in …