Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 September 2023
71. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science what plans he has for the proposals outlined in his Department’s recently published options paper, Funding the Future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40587/23]
View answerThe Minister recently published the options paper, Funding the Future. Will he outline what proposals his Department is considering enacting from the range of options presented in that paper and what he might be considering as part of budget 2024? If he wants to give us a detailed outline, that would be no problem.
I have to wait to read the Deputy's submission. I thank her for the question. It is that awkward time at parliamentary questions where I am supposed to say that these are matters for budget day on 10 October, which is true. We are in the period where Departments are engaging on what their budget allocations will look like next year. Let us start with what we know. I want to see us take steps in the budget in a couple of weeks' time to address the cost of education for families and learners. We have tried to take a number of steps in each of the budgets since this new Department was established three years ago. Last year, as the Deputy will recall, we made a number of important interventions. We saw a reduction in registration fees of €1,000 for all full-time undergraduate students. All student maintenance grant recipients received an extra payment, a bonus payment, if you like, at Christmas time. We saw students in receipt of the postgraduate fee contribution receive a one-off increase of €1,000, increasing their support from €3,500 to €4,500. More than €20 million was provided to the student assistance fund. All student grants increased by between 10% and 14%, which was above the rate of inflation. Those are things on which I wish to build.
One of the measures I was pleased with in last year's budget was a permanent reduction of €500 in the fees for anyone with a household income of less than €100,000. Only approximately 10,000 students have applied for that scheme and we think approximately 40,000 are eligible. We must continue to explore why more people have not availed of that scheme and consider what more we can do to promote it. There are other things I definitely want to do.
Some of the measures in last year's cost-of-living package worked and made a real difference. I cannot commit to them today but I know that when we reduced fees last year, it helped many people for the reasons the Deputy and I discussed earlier. There are anomalies in the student grant scheme that need to be looked at. I do not like that people cannot access it for part-time education, particularly if they are a part of an under-represented group, for example, lone parents or students with disabilities. Some people need to undertake education on a part-time basis that works for them. That is equally valid and as good as full-time education. We must consider how to support such people financially. I am acutely aware of the issue of PhD stipends. We will be looking again this year at the issues of fees, grants and PhD stipends, but also at some of the anomalies I think exist in the system, including the whole holiday income disregard and how much students can earn at weekends.
We have been discussing the considerable burden of the cost of accommodation on students and the very real impact that has on students' ability to access third level education. Students who are going into sixth year now are considering what they will do, going forward, and wondering if they will be able to access third level education. Another thing that needs to be talked about is the student contribution charge, which I call a fee. The free fees initiative was one of the great innovations in Irish public policy. That €3,000 charge is a fee by another name. I recognise that the Minister reduced that by €1,000 as a one-off measure in last year's budget. I recognise what he said in respect of those families who clearly do not realise that this reduction applies to them. I do not understand why we do not just reduce the charge. We should be looking to reduce the student contribution charge on an ongoing basis. Sinn Féin's alternative budget last year included getting rid of fees over a three-year period. I understand it is called the student contribution charge but these are fees by another name.
If you are sitting at home and having to find €3,000, you do not care what the Government calls it. It is effectively a fee in the sense that it is a bill that must be paid. If you have more than one child in college at the same time, as many people do, the impact is very real. The cost of going to college is, of course, even more expensive if students have to move out of home. I am acutely aware of the issue.
What we have done this year, and it has been quite a good process, is publish the options paper. We have put out for everyone, including the Deputy, to see how much it would cost to do A, B or C and the variety of different options. It explores what the Minister of the day can do if he or she receives a certain amount of funding. That is an attempt to have an honest discussion. It has enabled stakeholders, student bodies, access officers and others to feed into that discussion.
There is now downward pressure on registration fees, though. Last year was the first year that we saw fees reduced in any way for many years. The only time that fees used to get mentioned in this place for the last 20 odd years was when they were going up. The fees last year were effectively €2,000 for anybody doing a full-time undergraduate course. They have been permanently reduced by €500 for anyone with a household income of less than €100,000, and we have a budget in two weeks' time where we can see what more we can do in a variety of ways in supporting students.
Both of us speak to students regularly and we hear their concerns. So many students are telling me that they are either doing huge and long commutes trying to get into college, if they can, and that this is causing them huge stress. We saw that young woman on "The Tonight Show" this week who was explaining how she was travelling a long distance and the impact that was having with getting up at 5 a.m. and coming back late at night, while trying to keep her part-time job. So many students are not only struggling to get into college and all of that but then they also have to work long hours for their part-time jobs on minimum wage, trying to cover as much of their college costs as they can. They are also telling me about the real impact that is having on their mental health and about the fact there are not enough services around the universities for that.
So many young people are feeling left behind in this country and they do not see a future of being able to stay here. They want to contribute to this society but they need to be helped by Government to get through university, college or whatever course they want to do. They also need to see a future here where they can own their own homes or rent something at a decent price so that they can raise a family. That is something they are not seeing at the moment.
I fully accept that students and parents are in no way immune to the cost-of-living crisis. We are living through an inflationary crisis, the likes of which has not been seen since the 1970s, and that is having a real impact on people in making ends meet; there are no two ways about that. That is why we put in place a number of measures last year to help students, parents and families, and we will do similar this year in trying to come forward with measures. I am keen that any cost-of-living package that is in the budget in two weeks' time or so understands the challenges that students and their families are facing. That is why I worked hard to make sure that when the rent tax credit came in last year it was tweaked so that it is available to students. The rent tax credit has helped many students and their parents with the cost of rent, and if we can go further and do more then that is an avenue that is definitely worth exploring.
I am always conscious of people who watch these debates and who might get anxious about costs and stuff and I need to say that we live in a country where a little bit more than four out of ten students do not pay registration fees and access the Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, grant. The Deputy and I both want to grow that number. Let us see how we can look at things around income thresholds and the likes in the budget.
On the issue of digs, I know they are not ideal for everyone but there are 2,500 properties available out there and there are draft licence agreements out there. It is a better scenario for some people than the extraordinarily long commutes that they may be experiencing.
