2026-07-02

95. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the additional measures that will be implemented to intensify collaboration and delivery of further and higher education on a cross-border and all-Ireland basis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50256/26]

The Minister will have heard me many times in this House, at committees and at meetings of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party advocating for closer collaboration on the delivery of education on an all-Ireland basis. There is fantastic potential, especially in the further and higher education sector. I warmly welcome the Minister’s initiative, along with Dundalk Institute of Technology, DkIT, and Queen’s University, to develop a new partnership that will enable DKIT to become a university college of Queen’s. That is a great all-Ireland development. It is a landmark decision and is of particular value for the entire north-east region and much farther afield.

I thank Deputy Smith for his constant engagement in respect of this matter. I know it is one that is very dear to him. Through his chairmanship of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, he is advancing ties between our jurisdictions all the time and looking to extend cross-border and all-Ireland relationships. I very much share his ambition in that regard. My Department is engaged in extensive collaboration with the Northern Ireland Executive and the relevant agencies to enhance further and higher education across the island of Ireland. In April, I secured approval from the Cabinet to enable DkIT to join with Queen’s University to enter into a new strategic partnership, the first ever all-Ireland university. It is a really exciting project. We are advancing the legislation, and the drafting is currently under way. I thank the committee for its work on the pre-legislative scrutiny and for engaging with it so proactively. It is a landmark initiative that is fundamental to our shared, all-island missions. It will also enhance research and innovation in the north-east and along the Dublin-Belfast corridor, and provide new opportunities for students and employers. More broadly, my Department continues to work with the Department of Health to expand cross-border healthcare training, including an agreement with Queen’s Belfast to support 50 Irish-funded undergraduate medical places across the intakes of the last two years. Of course, we have the Creating Futures document, which is the new further education and training strategy that was published a month ago. It looks to strengthen all-island collaboration and foster joint initiatives between ETBs and FET schools here and their equivalents across Northern Ireland. I worked recently with Caoimhe Archibald, the Northern Ireland Minister for the Economy, to launch the first-ever all-island apprenticeship in the area of accounting technician. We met as part of the Government summit at Farmleigh. We launched that initiative having worked together on it for several months beforehand. We have a number of other initiatives that we are looking at that are along the same lines. Both Departments have secured €50 million through PEACEPLUS for skills development, which we will continue to roll out. We also have five new online projects being delivered, and there is much more that we can do on this.

I thank the Minister for his reply. I must say that members of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, across all jurisdictions, were very strong in their praise of the Minister’s contribution at our plenary meeting in Surrey, where he spoke about the opportunities for all-Ireland developments and also east-west developments. At a recent meeting of the further and higher education committee, we had the leadership of Queen’s University and the leadership of DkIT. They are very anxious to drive this partnership forward in a positive manner. They very much appreciate the leadership the Minister has shown. One of the great messages that came out of that meeting was the willingness of both Queen’s and Dundalk to work with the other education colleges. They already have a partnership with colleges whereby people can commence a course in a college of further education and then complete their degree course in either Dundalk or Queen’s. They are anxious to intensify that collaboration between the higher education institutes and the further education colleges across Cavan and Monaghan, and in our neighbouring counties north of the Border.

One project that I did not mention in my initial response is the digital creative industries programme, which is a €10 million, all-island project supported by shared island capital. It will enhance collaboration with the creative and digital industries in areas like graphic design, movies, the arts and digital arts across both jurisdictions. It is a project that is now live. It was one of the shared island projects in my Department. Regarding the ETBs and the options for further education and training to work on a cross-border basis, my Department is working with SOLAS to develop a detailed implementation plan for the new Creating Futures FET strategy. One of those actions is to advance all-island collaboration through specific all-island linkages and partnerships to engage with education, training, enterprise and industry stakeholders in Northern Ireland. Of course, we have the Queen’s-DkIT partnership, and there are a number of ancillary projects now coming into being under that, which I look forward to supporting strongly as they come through. In fact, I am inviting proposals for that. I know the Deputy has worked closely with the ETBs in Cavan, Monaghan and elsewhere. If there are projects that he wants to bring to my attention, I would welcome that input.

As the Minister is aware, we are very anxious to progress the Cavan college of the future. I sincerely hope there will be further developments on that over the summer months. We are anxious to have that major new extension to the existing college constructed on Cathedral Road, right in the centre of Cavan town, where there is a demand for new accommodation. The Minister saw first-hand the work that goes on at the institute. It draws students from a wide area. It has a huge success rate for students fulfilling career choices, following the careers chosen before they went into college and going on to attain further higher education qualifications. It is very important that we move that project along as quickly as possible. The accommodation is needed, and the Minister can be assured that the people, the director of the college and his staff will ensure that the students who attend will get the very best options across all courses, and the best in learning and teaching as well.

I thank the Deputy for his invitation to visit that day, along with the Minister of State, Deputy Niamh Smyth. We had a very good engagement in Cavan and then visited the institute. I share the Deputy’s desire to see the college of the future advance at pace. I hope to have a positive announcement on that in the near future. I will certainly be keeping Members apprised of that. It is my intention that the institute would be able to appoint a design team in the coming months, and that we are able to progress with that project, which is much needed. I could see that myself when visiting the site and speaking to learners and educators while traversing the school that is already there. They are doing great work, which will be enhanced by the provision of a capital project for the further training centre, which I hope to be able to support strongly in the coming months. That is a very important project on which I will continue to work. More broadly, as part of the shared island initiative, there are other projects that fall under the ambit of the Queen’s-DkIT partnership that I intend to support. I also intend to further advance the collaboration on a North-South basis. As I mentioned already, we recently launched the first all-island apprenticeship for accounting technician, and there are a couple of others that are being considered. Where possible, I intend to roll that out and increase the capacity.