I hear clearly what the Deputy is saying in regard to Ballyhaunis and the importance of that project for County Mayo. It certainly is the case that these funding calls are open to all ETBs. More than that, I expect all ETBs to come forward with projects. I want to be able to fund €430 million of capital expenditure across further and higher education between now and 2024, 45% of that being in the further education and training space. In fact, I want to do more than that. I would like us to have what we have never b…

I certainly will take an interest in Ballyhaunis and would be delighted to visit the town with Deputy Calleary. Between the work we are doing in terms of the ETBs, capital funding and Atlantic Technological University coming into being at the start of April, it is an exciting time for further and higher education in the north west, including Mayo. I look forward to working with the Deputy on that. I thank Deputy Murnane O'Connor for all the work she has done in regard to Carlow College, St. Patrick's, for bringing …

I thank the Deputy for his question. I acknowledge that HECA has played a very constructive role in its engagement with my Department since its foundation, particularly during the Covid pandemic. Representatives of the association sat on the Covid steering committee and there has been no difference between publicly-funded and privately-funded institutions in terms of the public health-led approach to the crisis. I thank HECA and, in particular, its CEO, Patricia O'Sullivan, for her work in this regard. Partnership …

I assure the Deputy that I hold HECA in high esteem. Its representatives are very good to engage with, which we do on a whole range of issues. I have had a number of meetings with them and will continue to engage. In order to take this forward, perhaps the Deputy and-or HECA would formally communicate with my Department and me on the matter. In that way, we will be able to come back to the Deputy, as he suggested, in advance of the next regular meeting of the National Skills Council.

I thank my colleague, Deputy Alan Farrell, for raising this very important issue this evening and also for talking about it on a regular and ongoing basis. I also thank him for his interest in and commitment to FET and in particular how it can benefit the community of Swords in the county of Fingal. As the Deputy has outlined, Fingal county has shown the highest growth of any local authority in Ireland over the past 20 years. Swords is officially the largest town in Dublin and the second largest in the country, and…

I again thank Deputy Farrell for raising the issue. My message to the DDLETB in the context of Swords, and my message to all ETBs, is that we have a very significant pot of funding to invest in FET colleges of the future, to expand provision and to upgrade facilities for exactly the reasons the Deputy outlines, including the need to make sure we have the skills we require in this country to meet some of the massive challenges we face in particular in the area Deputy Farrell has responsibility for in my party in ter…

Sinn Féin's government in Northern Ireland has decided that the A-levels should proceed. It did not offer anybody in Northern Ireland a choice. I do not think young people who look across the island will ignore the breathtaking hypocrisy of the stance that Sinn Féin has about the exams down here and the stance it has about the exams up there. I have met students, as I am sure the Deputy has. I have been in countless schools across the country. I think I have been in five or six counties in the past week. When I tal…

Sinn Féin has representation in the North. We generally engage constructively, but taking young people for fools is not going to wash at all.

The leader of Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland is, or at least was, the joint head of the Government. A-levels are going ahead with no predicted or calculated grades. Where Sinn Féin is in government, it is not making the announcement that it is shouting and roaring for down here in opposition. Be that as it may, Sinn Féin is actually a partitionist party when it comes to the issue of educational policy. It is the same on college fees, but we will get to that in a moment.

It has to be said; it cannot just be one-way traffic. It cannot just be given; it has to be taken as well

If Sinn Féin is serious about government, it needs to be consistent in its stance, North and South. With regard to this issue and what steps I am taking, this Government has increased the places in third level by 6,000 over the past two years. That is a massive increase. It is important that leaving certificate students hear that the number of applications to the CAO on deadline day this year versus last year was down 1,141. I say that to be, hopefully, somewhat reassuring to students. Now that we know the situatio…

That is wrong.

I fully agree with the Deputy that this year should not just be about announcing an additional number of college places. More college places will be available this year. As the Deputy rightly suggested, it has been the case in previous years as well. Budget 2022 provided approximately €20 million for extra growth in the higher education sector. There will be additional funding and places. As the Deputy correctly pointed out, the bigger challenge is to try and focus in this year on the in-demand courses or the cours…

No, it is not. It is about pathways, actually. It is about recognising that different students will want to do different things. I think the Deputy and I agree that it is about broadening the conversation beyond just higher education to further education apprenticeships. It is about ending the snobby and elitist view that when someone goes to a school, the student believes that the only conversation to have is about the CAO and points. It is complete nonsense. It is a system that we have developed here without any …

I thank the Deputy for the question, which is very timely. I have some positive news and perhaps we can build on it. Inclusion is a core goal for my Department, for the House and for Members on all sides of this House. It is about ensuring that there is access and equity of access for all students of both further and higher education. It is most likely that we will publish a new national access and inclusion plan with a budget of €5 million to deliver on measures in 2022 in March. While higher education institution…

I find myself in full agreement with the Deputy. To be honest, one of my concerns in respect of the national access plan, which has achieved a great deal, is exactly what she and Senator Hoey have identified, that is, there are people with disabilities not counted within those figures. I think of students with autism or those with intellectual disabilities or dyslexia. There are others who are not counted. There is more work to be done in respect of students with visual impairments and the likes. I had a very good …

I will absolutely take that on board. I present the issue as two separate and distinct but very much interdependent parts, as does her question, in fairness. There is the capital piece, on which I expect we will make further progress through both the existing fund we have in place for students with disabilities and the drawdown of that fund to provide facilities such as sensory rooms that are beginning to roll out. In addition, our capital calls, which can be expected later this week, will involve a focus in the cr…

I thank Deputy Moynihan very much for raising this issue, which I know is one in which he has a particular interest. Development of the new strategic action plan for equity, participation and success in higher education, which I call the national access and inclusion plan, is at its very final stage. The plan is being developed collaboratively between my Department and the Higher Education Authority. The plan has involved significant consultation with interested stakeholders, as is right and proper, including the i…

The submissions process has formally closed but it is never too late to submit a good idea. If there are any further groups or ideas the Deputy wishes to bring forward, I will be very happy to hear from them. The Deputy is 100% right as he has described those at the margins. One of the things a group or stakeholder driving the strategy said was that there needed to be additional priority groups. As I was saying in my response to Deputy Bacik earlier, we have made good progress on a number of category groups. There …

I am 100% up for that. I hope the Oireachtas and Oireachtas committees, including Deputy Michael Moynihan, can genuinely play a helpful and active role in monitoring this. It is not a static document. In my term as Minister, I have been regularly invited to the oversight group. We publish the documents and the targets, but then the work begins. Our figures for higher education participation are very good and among the best in Europe, but headline figures can flatter and can mask another reality. They are very good …