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Departmental Reviews

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 March 2022

Tuesday, 8 March 2022

Questions (47)

Rose Conway-Walsh

Question:

47. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science when he will publish the SUSI review and bring forward measures to improve the system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12747/22]

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Oral answers (6 contributions)

The draft SUSI review has been on the Minister's desk since December. When will the report be published? When will he bring proposals to Cabinet? In particular, are the reforms specified in the review going to be introduced in September or will we have to wait until 2023-24? That is what I am really concerned about.

I thank the Deputy very much. The honest answer to the last part of the question is that it will be a matter for the discussions on the Estimates. However, I take the point she makes about the need to ensure additional supports are brought in for September. It is right to say that what is announced in the budget will take effect from the calendar year 2023. I believe the Deputy is putting it up to me to see if we can do more from this September. I will certainly work on that basis.

The programme for Government contains a commitment to review SUSI eligibility criteria, adjacency rates and postgraduate grant supports. To take this forward, I established a review of the student grant scheme. This was conducted by Indecon under the direction of a steering group chaired by my Department and comprising a number of stakeholders including, importantly, the Department of Social Protection so that it could look at the whole area of poverty traps. Crucially, the voice of our students was also represented through the Union of Students in Ireland, along with the voice of institutions and others.

As the Deputy will know from my answer to her previous question, it is my intention to bring this piece of work to Cabinet alongside the proposals on a sustainable funding model. Issues of cost and access must be considered in tandem with the issues of system funding and reform. I do not want to bring forward a funding model that is sustainable for universities but not for students or their families.  If we want the best outcomes, we need a well-funded system that is accessible to people regardless of their background.  Reform of the student support system can, and will, be a critical enabler of other strategic outcomes across the tertiary education system. Given these interconnections, it is my intention to bring the student grant review to Cabinet alongside the report on funding and reform of higher education, both of which will be published together.

Implementing the report recommendations is a key priority for my Department. I am pleased to say we have started this process. I know the Deputy will argue with me about the pace but we have started to initiate these improvements. Indeed, I will be signing regulations this week to bring in a number of improvements to the SUSI grant scheme from September. These include increases to the thresholds and income levels and improvements to the situation regarding adjacency rates. All student grant maintenance payments, including the special rate of grant, will increase by €200 per year, the income thresholds to qualify will increase by €1,000, and the qualifying distance criterion for students to qualify for the non-adjacent rate of grant has been reduced from 45 km to 30 km.  I will sign those regulations this week.

We welcome those changes but we really need to see them now. As the Minister will know, we are in extraordinary times with regard to the cost of living. The cost of living is having a severe impact on students and their families. That is why I am concerned that one thing is being delayed by the other. We need to bring in measures with regard to SUSI eligibility before the beginning of the next year. I am concerned about the students who are here right now, particularly students who have to travel because they either cannot get accommodation or afford accommodation and have to travel in their cars when we are seeing the price of fuel become unaffordable. This is really having an impact and we should treat this with the urgency it deserves in terms of providing support for students. It is in their interests, and all of our interests, for us to ensure that as many students as possible continue and are as successful in their studies as they can be.

I thank the Deputy. Of course, we did take measures in this House to benefit students for this academic year. We changed the law in respect of student renters not once, but twice, to make sure that students could not be asked to pay more than one month's rent in advance or a deposit worth more than one month's rent. That was a significant issue and a solution was sought by students' unions with support from parties across this House. This could have a real and meaningful impact with regard to the amount of money students have to pay out up front. We also changed the law with regard to the notice period students, and other renters, need to give. In the budget, we also introduced the first increase in grant maintenance payments in some time, an increase of €200 per year. The income threshold is increasing by €1,000 and the qualifying distance criterion for students to qualify for the non-adjacent rate of grant is being reduced from 45 km to 30 km. These are not abstract things, as the Deputy knows. She has welcomed them. These changes will benefit thousands of students and will build on improvements that we brought in for this year for current students, including an increase and improvements for postgraduate students. However, I accept that we need to do more. I will point out that, if the Deputy looks at the terms of reference of the SUSI review, she will see that these are exactly the sorts of areas we have been looking at. We are not waiting for the publication of a report to make progress. We have started and I certainly hope to take many more steps in the budget.

I appreciate that but we really need to make sure that SUSI is fit for purpose. I think we agree on that. At the moment, too few people have access to it. I welcome the announced increases to the income thresholds but we are obviously still waiting for them to come into effect. We could have worked on the maintenance grant. We did not have to wait until September to do that.

We need to increase the numbers getting access to the scheme rather than simply being a standstill measure to keep up with the limited wage growth that we have seen in recent years. The SUSI budget was substantially larger in 2015 than in 2020. Part-time students are offered no support. The Minister should be looking to extend student grants to part-time students even if it is just helping with fees. SUSI should cover the postgraduate fees as well. We also need to ensure that SUSI supports get to those who need them most. The burden of proof for lone parents is too high. We need to look specifically at the case of adults often with children of their own who need to move back in with their parents because of the housing crisis. There is a perfect storm for students and we need to get them out of it.

I accept some of the matters the Deputy has highlighted and the need for improvement. I particularly agree with her on the issue of part-time students. We need to do some work on defining what a part-time student is. I do not say that in any smart or flippant way. Obviously, there are many different types of part-time courses. What constitutes a part-time student for the purposes of the grant involves genuine technical and somewhat legal issues that we will need to work through. We should do that and we will do that.

I want students to know this. The Deputy is right that students are not immune from the cost-of-living pressures - far from it. Many are experiencing those costs which is why we made the additional allocation to the student assistance fund. I want students to know that it is there. It is available through their access office. Students should know that it is there for one-off bills for people who are struggling financially. I want to get that message out. I sometimes worry that this message does not get out to students on the ground as much as it needs to through the access office. The student assistance fund is there. We have made changes to the SUSI grant scheme that have already taken effect, including specifically for postgraduate students and the grant scheme will open in coming days for the forthcoming academic year.

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