EDUCATION: University heads have warned that staff cuts are inevitable across the sector, unless the cutbacks agreed in the estimates are reversed.
They have also criticised the Government for the "economic short-sightedness" that lay behind the cuts, especially those in research funding.
The third-level sector has borne the brunt of education cutbacks.
Capital funding is down by 24 per cent in the universities while current spending is cut by 1 per cent. The Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, has signalled that the third-level sector will continue to suffer as he shifts his priority to the primary sector.
Yesterday, the Conference of Heads of Irish Universities (CHIU) said the 1 per cent cut in current spending was an effective cut of over 8 per cent, based on costs for 2003 agreed between the universities and the Higher Education Authority (HEA).
Mr Dempsey has advised the colleges to achieve savings in non-staff costs but the universities say this is not possible because these account for only a quarter of this spending. An effective 36 per cent cut in non-pay areas is unsustainable, according to CHIU.
It says the cuts in recurrent funding amount to a shortfall of approximately €770 per student.
Dr Art Cosgrove, the UCD president and chairman of CHIU said: "Unless the cuts are reversed or the shortfall is made up from increased fees or other sources, staff cuts are inevitable". Expenditure on higher education in the State is low by international standards. The State is ranked 25th of 30 OECD states in spending per student.
Yesterday, the university sector was in a state of shock at the scale of the cutbacks.
There is considerable anger with the Government's decision to cut the Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions research programme (PRTLI), despite clear commitments in the Programme for Government. The universities say they needed about €50 million to maintain the PRTLI programme at its current level and to honour contractual commitments. But the estimates allow for only €7.5 million.
Yesterday, the university heads said the Government's "much vaunted" commitment to creating world-class research in Ireland can only be realised by a consistent programme of investment. "The Government's stop-go approach will completely undermine the hard-won progress to date," they warned.