In a meeting in 2005, the then-U.S. ambassador to Ireland expressed concern that Irish universities were not producing enough qualified graduates and advised the country’s future prime minister to adopt American-style tax deductions to encourage philanthropic donations to universities. The Belfast Telegraph reported last week on the exchange, which came to light when a diplomatic cable about it was published by WikiLeaks.

At the meeting, Ambassador James C. Kenny, who held his post from 2003 to 2006, told Brian Cowen, the then-finance minister who became prime minister in 2008, that “concerns over the supply of quality graduates were linked to limits on education funding, which derived from the Irish government’s longstanding decision not to impose university tuition fees,” the paper reported. According to the cable, dated March 8, 2005, the “ambassador asked whether the U.S. endowment model might hold interest for the Department of Finance and also whether private contributions to university endowments were now, or could become, tax-deductible.”

The conversation between the two men came a year after a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said that Ireland needed to undertake education reforms to insure the country’s continued economic competitiveness. The report provided what the cable called “extra motivation” for the Finance Department to improve Ireland’s higher-education system.