Vol. 1044 No. 3
74. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the rationale for the one-off cost-of-living measures in budget 2024 associated with his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45691/23]
Students were expecting and hoping to see a permanent reduction in the student contribution charge in the budget last week, rather than a once-off measure. Students I have spoken to in the past week are really disappointed about it. Will the Minister explain why there was temporary reduction in the charge rather than a permanent one, with a view to abolishing it?
The Deputy and I must talk to different students, which is entirely possible. I have met many students and parents who really welcome that rather than having to wait until next September for a fee reduction that might happen, we have taken the opportunity in the cost-of-living package to ensure tens of thousands of students will get €1,000 back before Christmas and tens of thousands of people will get an increase in their postgraduate fee contribution. In addition, the PhD stipend will rise for many from January.
I fully accept that we have more to do. However, I certainly was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth when money was available right now by way of cost-of-living measures. I put that money to good use for students and families. I have made it a priority to reduce the cost of third level education. Cost should not be a barrier to education, as the Deputy and I agree. It should never be a barrier to people reaching their full potential, pursuing their goal and getting to where they want to be in life. Over several budgets, we have made a number of significant policy changes to reduce the cost of education for families. Since my appointment as Minister, student grants have increased by between 28% and 101%, depending on the grant received.
Budget 2024 aims to remove more barriers and make further and higher education more accessible. The measures in the cost-of-living package for my Department, which total €115 million, will support young people and their families. For the second year in a row, we have reduced the contribution fee by €1,000 for 94,000 eligible undergraduates. This reduction will apply automatically. If students' household income is less than €100,000, they are eligible for a further €500 reduction in fees, meaning the college fee will be halved to €1,500. This will automatically put money back in people's pockets. Apprentice fees for 11,000 apprentices will be reduced by one third. There will be an increase of €1,000 in the postgraduate tuition fee contribution grant for student recipients, to be paid by Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI. From January, for the first time since the financial crash, the postgraduate maintenance grant is coming back. We have topped up the student assistance fund. We are making permanent increases to the student grant, which will apply from January. As I said, we have more to do. I share the Deputy's aim to reduce the registration fee over time but I wanted to make real progress in this budget.
The Minister mentioned the financial crash. In 2008, when the registration fee was first increased by a significant amount - by 67%, as I recall - I had just started college. Students came together to protest outside Leinster House, in Galway and all over the country. They knew that fee was simply the start of what was to come and, indeed, it has increased massively since then. It certainly is true that people will be pleased to see some money going back into their pockets by way of the reduction in the charge. The problem is that we need a view of the long term. People want to know the reduction of €1,000 will be permanent, with a view to the charge bring abolished. We talk about free fees. We see the benefits of free secondary school education, how transformative it was for so many people and how fantastic it has been for society. That is the kind of vision we need for third level education.
I am sure the Deputy will agree that we must start with those most in need. Ministers have to work with the resources that are available and it is right to target them at those most in need. From next September, any student with a household income below €56,000 will pay a grand total of zero in undergraduate fees. I often see that among secondary school students, many of them think their parents will have to pay €3,000 in college fees, which they may not have. This is not true. Anybody in this country with a household income below €56,000 pays zero fees. That needs to be said. Any family with a household income below €100,000 has had student fees halved if the student is doing a full-time undergraduate degree. Anybody with an income above €100,000 is getting €1,000 off college fees.
I did not think it right that people would have to wait until next September for a reduction, as per the budget proposal by the Deputy's party. I want to make real progress and permanent reductions. The fact we have reduced fees not once but twice is a clear indication of the policy direction in which both the Deputy and I want to go, which is about reducing the cost of education for families.
One thing we definitely can agree on is the need to make education as accessible as possible. We know many people do not realise what is available to them and we must ensure they are made aware. This is really about the type of vision the Minister has for third level education. I think he probably does have such a vision. It was a disappointment that the reduction in the charge is not a permanent measure, with a view to abolishing the charge. Sometimes, these decisions are made by the Ministers for Finance and for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. People knew this issue would continue to put pressure on families. There is concern about whether they will be able to afford third level education. It is not just the student contribution charge; it is also the impact of the accommodation crisis and the difficulty of finding somewhere to live. The issue is a lot broader than the student charge. It is about what kind of vision we have for third level education, which should be that it is free.
My vision on this is really clear. I believe education is a public good and that people should have a right to access it regardless of their means. Free education in Ireland now starts at age two, with free preschool education, and goes right the way through. That should continue on through to an undergraduate degree. Some people will go to college full time, some part time and others will do a third level course online. People will not necessarily want to go straight from school to college. There needs to be flexibility. The idea of education as a public good that can be accessible regardless of means is really important. The student grant is increasing significantly from January. That is a direct recognition of the need to support people, including those most in need. I chose to increase the money from January rather than telling people they must wait until next September. We are bringing in postgraduate maintenance grants for the first time in more than a decade.
The Deputy is right that the cost of student accommodation is a huge burden on people. That is why I worked with the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, to ensure there was provision in the budget for the rent tax credit to be applicable to parents who are paying their child's rent. They can get that credit backdated for the past year. Parents with a child in digs in the third year of college can claim back €1,750. That will really help people.
75. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if he will, in light of the independent national review of State supports for PhD researchers, review his recent announcement and bring the stipends of all PhD researchers, not just those funded by Science Foundation Ireland, SFI, and the Irish Research Council, IRC, up to the living wage; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45985/23]
Earlier this year, the Minister made a commitment to make Ireland one of the best places to do a PhD. In the recent budget, he failed to live up to that commitment. He provided for an increase to €22,000 a year in the stipend, but that applies only to PhD researchers funded by SFI and IRC, who make up fewer than 30% of the total. The payment is still well below a living wage or the average stipend for PhD students in the rest of Europe. What will the Minister do to fulfil his commitment and ensure PhD candidates have a living income?
I acknowledge that the Deputy raises this issue with me regularly. Every year since I became Minister, we have made improvements to PhD stipends, and rightly so because they are not where they need to be. The first change we made was to address a bizarre discrepancy that existed between the stipend for a PhD researcher with the Irish Research Council and that for a PhD researcher with Science Foundation Ireland. In last year's budget, the stipend was increased by €500 for both SFI and the IRC, bringing stipends in Ireland to €19,000, and under the budget delivered in recent weeks, I have secured funding to increase the PhD stipend provided by the competitive funding agencies under my Department to €22,000 per student per annum, an increase of €3,000.
I acknowledge clearly, and am not in any way reneging from the fact, that the independent report I commissioned recommends getting to €25,000. Anybody reading the report honestly will also recognise, however, that that may not be done in one go, and the report recognises that clearly as well. I do not want PhD researchers to think this is the end of the matter; it is not. The Government remains committed to getting to €25,000. We have gone from €19,000 to €22,000 and I hope to finish the job by getting from €22,000 to €25,000 in future budgets.
The Deputy asked why this applies only to funding agencies under my remit. I can direct and instruct only those agencies under my remit, but I hope others will follow suit. My understanding is the Health Research Board, HRB, is already ahead of the €22,000 and that Teagasc and individual universities will now consider this. Of course, they have until January before that PhD stipend comes in.
I have received the final review from the co-chairs. The Deputy will recall they gave us one report, which related largely to stipends, and another report was due. I have received that and am working my way through it with my officials. I am putting in place a work programme to see how we can progress the recommendations and I hope to be in a position to publish that in the coming weeks.
The Minister said he just cannot increase the figure to €25,000.
I did not say that.
Why can he not do that? I do not accept he cannot. The research and development tax credit is worth €750 million a year in most cases to multinationals. I would much rather give our PhD researchers a living income and cut slightly the money going to the most spectacularly profitable companies in the world, and the Minister would have plenty of money. In our budget submission, we proposed a stipend for all PhD researchers and costed it at €100 million. We could take €100 million, therefore, off the super-profitable multinationals and give it to PhD researchers to allow them to have a living income. The Government does have a mechanism to do this because it gave a once-off cost-of-living payment of €500 to everybody. The idea, therefore, the Minister can do it only for people in agencies under his remit is simply not true because the Government did it on a once-off basis for everybody. Let us give everybody who is a PhD researcher a living wage. The money is there.
Of course, what I say is true in that I can direct only agencies under my remit, but the Deputy is entirely correct that, generally, other parts of government follow suit as well. The main funders of PhD researchers, from a State point of view, include individual institutions, SFI, the IRC, Teagasc and the HRB. The HRB has moved, the IRC and SFI are now moving and Teagasc will consider the matter. Moreover, I know from conversations with individual university presidents that they, too, are looking at this issue. In fairness, they have been among the strongest advocates for our PhD researchers and I expect announcements in that regard.
Budgets, however, are about trying to strike a balance between the variety of priorities I have within my Department's Vote, and while I want to look after PhD researchers and have increased their stipend by €3,000, I also thought it was important that we increased our student grants, reduced fees and could extend the rent tax relief to families and invest in literacy. The Deputy and I might have differing views on economic policies but I think supporting companies locating in this country is a good thing. We are going to get to the €25,000. Our stipends are now ahead of the UK, at €22,000, as a result of the budget.
Will the Minister clarify whether PhD researchers are treated like workers? Members of the Postgraduate Workers Organisation are in the Gallery and this is another issue they have asked about. If a PhD researcher has the same status as a worker, they should get sick leave and all the other entitlements a worker gets, given they are workers and without them our universities and other third level institutions would not be able to function. They need to be acknowledged as such.
When the Minister says he is going to try to increase the stipend, will that be for everybody? Huge numbers of our PhD researchers are on miserable incomes, far less than the stipend, and the Minister could have at least met the recommendation of €25,000. If one deserves it, they all deserve it but even that is far less than the average among the rest of Europe and very significantly less than would be required to make the country, as the Minister suggested will be the case, the best place in Europe to be a PhD student. Our PhD researchers, who are driving research and innovation and keeping our universities going, are living in poverty. Moreover, there are also the visa and immigration issues that many of them are facing and they would like to know what the Minister is going to do about them. He knows what the issues are.
I do know what the issues are and I have engaged with many of our PhD researchers. As the Deputy knows and as I said earlier, a second report that was due from the co-chairs has been received by my Department and will be considered and published in the coming weeks. That report was charged with looking at a variety of other issues above and beyond the issue of stipends, and I know those issues are very important to PhD researchers, as they are to higher education in general and to Ireland Inc. I look forward to having a chance to consider that report, publishing it and publishing an action plan and work programme to progress those recommendations.
It is important, however, when we commission independent reports, that we do not just pick bits out of them. An excellent job was done in the independent report I commissioned, with excellent engagement from PhD researchers, which I acknowledge. It did recommend increases in stipends up to €25,000, but it did not say we should get there in one go and it did say the increases should be from January. That is why I have made sure, quite unusually for a budget, that when an increase comes in, it will come in from January, as opposed to having to wait until next September. Contrary to what people might be saying, this is not the last word on the matter. We will get to the €25,000 and I want to see that for all PhD researchers.
76. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the reason there was such an absence of measures related to purpose-built student accommodation in budget 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45692/23]
It was astonishing for most people that student accommodation was not mentioned once in the contributions of the Ministers, Deputy Michael McGrath and Donohoe, on budget day at a time when people and students are struggling as a result of a lack of student accommodation, both purpose-built and general, to be availed of. Will the Minister give an update on the issue of student accommodation within budget 2024?
As the Deputy well knows, student accommodation is addressed through capital. The Government made clear on budget day, in advance of budget day and in a previous Government decision that in the national development plan, NDP, the uplift and extra funding in capital would be dealt with through the NDP review process, which is due to conclude around the end of the year. That will be an opportunity to try to progress a number of important student accommodation projects and I am actively working with colleagues across government, including the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, on a number of exciting initiatives.
The Deputy and I agree we need to increase both the supply and the affordability of student accommodation and to recognise, as I do, that it is a significant challenge for students, parents and families. That is why we have changed the policy on student accommodation since last November. Until then, the State was investing zero euro and zero cent in direct funding for student accommodation. It was being done through the private market or through colleges, by borrowing or accessing the European Investment Bank, EIB, or in other ways.
We are now, rightly, using taxpayers' money to fund projects and get them going and, as we have discussed previously, that means projects in Dublin City University, DCU, Maynooth University, the University of Limerick and the University of Galway. Students have gone back to college this year with about 900 additional student accommodation beds owned by colleges that opened this year compared with last year, and with about 2,000 more private beds this year than last year. Furthermore, the budget helps with the affordability aspect by expanding the rent tax credit. In addition, after meeting students’ unions, I recently approved an additional €440,000 to the student assistance fund, specifically targeted at students who are experiencing difficulty with the cost or availability of student accommodation, and that has been disbursed across the universities, which I hope and know will help in a meaningful way.
The Deputy will have seen the benefit of the 674 beds that are being delivered for University of Galway, but we are absolutely determined to do more at pace on student accommodation. There are significant opportunities for University College Dublin, UCD, and Trinity College Dublin, in particular, and more for DCU, and I will be happy to work with the Deputy in the context of the NDP review.
Students protested outside Leinster House just days before the budget because the cost of student accommodation is at an all-time high. When we hear about people paying the likes of €12,000 for student accommodation, we know something has gone terribly wrong. Affordability is the crux of the issue.
We are seeing high-end accommodation coming on stream. Students are saying they do not need this kind of high-end accommodation and cannot afford this kind of high-end student accommodation. Students are having to commute long, crazy distances to try to get to college. To be perfectly honest, I cannot even imagine the impact that level of stress and strain is having on the dropout rate. Will the Minister also clarify when the student accommodation strategy will be published because students are waiting to see that published?
While I agree with the Deputy about affordability, you come at affordability from a range of ways. Affordability is about making sure a family or student can afford to pay the price of college and of renting for college. Reducing fees, increasing grants, extending the renter's tax credit and specifically putting €440,000 into the student assistance fund for students having difficulty with the cost of accommodation means we have help in the here and now and from the get-go. I agree fully with the Deputy about standardisation. I have spoken to student unions and they tell me they are being asked to pay for accommodation at a spec, for want of a better word, they never sought. We need to get to standardised design. We need student accommodation as it is being built in Sligo and Athlone, County Westmeath, and the technological universities in Waterford, Carlow and other places. We need a standard approach across the country. I am concluding a piece of work with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on standardised design that will be due in quarter 1 of 2024. I think that will make a real difference in terms of the affordability and speed of rolling out new projects.
Will the Minister say when the strategy will be published? Despite being in this role for only a few months, from going around the different universities and speaking to them I think the issue of affordability stems both from the housing crisis and from the issue whereby we are seeing really high-spec accommodation people would never be able to afford. Even if you were working full time, you would not be able to afford that kind of high-spec accommodation. That comes from the for-profit model universities have to operate because of the funding gap. They obviously then have to rent it out over the summer months. As a result, it obviously impacts on students with regard to affordability.
I also have a question about the digs and money coming back. Usually for that tax credit people have to be registered with the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB. As most of those digs obviously are not, what is the exact story there and how would that work?
The short answer is that for the digs you do not. We had this issue last year too. I plan to publish a new student accommodation strategy by the end of the year. I prioritised trying to move on the legacy projects that had planning permission but that had stalled for economic reasons. I think on balance that was the right call. Those were priorities one, two and three. We will have a new strategy towards the end of the year.
We need to get to a situation where we have more college-owned affordable accommodation, built to meet the needs of students and no more than that. As we increase core funding into our universities, which we are, I hope the point made by the Deputy about being reliant on income as in the past, becomes less relevant. I want to get to a position where we have a standardised design approach, as we see with other public buildings, where student accommodation looks like one of two or three options. That speeds up the planning and design process, helps with affordability, and makes sure we are building stuff students want and can afford. We will have that piece of work concluded in quarter 1 of 2024.
77. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the steps he is taking to assist members of the Travelling community in accessing third level education; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44897/23]
This is a simple enough question for the Minister, but it is an interesting and important one. What steps is he taking to assist members of the Travelling community to access third level education, and will he make a statement on the matter?
I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I am committed to making progress in enhancing access, participation and success for learners across further education, apprenticeships and higher education. Recent data for 2021-22 indicate that the current number of new Traveller entrants to higher education is 52. The national access plan targets 150 new entrants to higher education from the Traveller community by 2028, so there is a lot of work we need to do collectively to get to that target. I also had a good meeting on this issue with Pavee Point in recent weeks.
Last year, I allocated a fund of €1.35 million over three years to a pilot programme to support learners from the Traveller and Roma communities. The key objective of this funding stream is to increase the participation and progression of Traveller and Roma students in higher education. The fund can be used to support the development of community-based partnerships with the Traveller and Roma communities. The impact of that will be reported by the Higher Education Authority, HEA, in quarter 1 of 2024. I think that word, "impact", is really important. We all want to get to the same point here. We have had targets for Traveller participation in higher education for many years, and over successive Governments, but we have never yet got there. Measuring against initiatives and the HEA reporting on that will be key to success.
The project plans show there are a diverse range of projects and activities being carried out at both pre- and post-entry levels. A number of other social inclusion measures are aimed at supporting Traveller and Roma learners as part of our action plan for apprenticeships. This includes the Traveller and Roma apprenticeship incentivisation programme. To date, 22 Travellers and one employer have been funded. While an apprenticeship involves a paid employment contract, there may also be associated costs for apprentices, such as buying tools or equipment. To help with this, the Traveller apprenticeship incentivisation scheme and the new social inclusion bursary will provide sums of between €2,000 and €2,500 to apprentices for such costs. There are also a number of programmes and strategies such as Youthreach and the adult literacy for life strategy that are vital in supporting members of the Traveller and Roma community. This includes supporting learners to develop literacy, numeracy and soft skills, in line with the further education and training strategy.
I am conscious that the requirements of full-time education can sometimes provide a barrier to many people, including members of the Travelling community. That is why I am pleased we have a new initiative in place from September 2024 around part-time education and the removal of fees.
I thank the Minister for that positive response. As a former lecturer in the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, GMIT, in Galway, I saw very few from the Travelling community passing through the built environment section as students. When I was working in the private sector I experienced Travellers who had gone to third level education, got their engineering degrees, and were out on sites working and contributing to society. They were also models for other young Travellers who might be contemplating third level education. That is one of the issues. They may feel there is a barrier or attitude that if they go to university they will not be treated properly. The most important thing is that we need a system where Traveller students in universities are sent out as ambassadors into the communities, secondary schools and other areas, to explain their experience in education to other Travellers. I understand this is happening with some success in the university in Galway. Maybe it is something that should be looked at so every college and university would have an ambassador type situation to try to encourage more people.
I agree with all of that, and join the Deputy in commending the University of Galway on all of the good work it is doing. I have had the opportunity to meet them on a few occasions specifically on the subject of Traveller participation. What I like about what they do is that it is not just about getting somebody in the door. It is about getting somebody out the other side, through the education process and into the world of work. I think we are doing a reasonable amount, quite a lot in many ways, at third level with bursaries and incentivisation and having this as a priority area in the national access plan. We are reporting against it through the HEA. We are up for doing more and want to do more. We also have to be honest, however. The Deputy mentioned secondary schools. A lot of the barriers and blockages are encountered long before second and third level education. There needs to be a joined-up approach to all of the different blockages and barriers somebody may experience throughout their life. That is why I am working closely with my colleague, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, and his Department on the successor to the national Traveller and Roma inclusion strategy. It is a way to look at things in the round, and how we remove any block or barrier at any stage of the education journey for our students, in this case in particular for members of the Traveller community.
I agree wholeheartedly with the Minister's approach. It is important and a matter of changing attitudes. We will reap the benefits with more people coming into the workforce and more education within the Travelling community, which will be of benefit to everybody and to create that as a norm rather than an exception. I cannot let the moment go without asking how the Minister got on in Mountbellew at the agricultural college. If they were to do veterinary courses we would have a situation where people locally, including Travellers, could become vets in Galway or across the country. I know the Minister met them last Friday and I wonder how that went.
The Deputy shows admirable ability in terms of how he got from here to there.
I was pleased to visit Mountbellew in recent days and honoured to open the Aleen Cust library, named after the first female veterinary surgeon in Ireland and the UK, who was an incredible woman. I have been reading up on her in recent days. I was delighted to meet the team there and to see the good work going on in Mountbellew.
The factual position is the Government wants to expand the number of veterinary medicine places. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and I conducted an exercise in which we asked the higher education sector to put forward ideas of what more it could offer. A number of projects came forward that were deemed to be viable at the first stage. One was Mountbellew working with Atlantic Technological University in Donegal, one was University of Limerick and one was the South East Technological University’s plan for Kildalton college. All of them will be assessed by our two Departments and considered in the context of the NDP review. I hope to be in a position to provide an update towards the end of the year. I am very impressed by what is going on in Mountbellew and it was good to be there.
