In 2021 the Department secured additional temporary funding during the Supplementary Estimates. Within Programme B, voted higher education, the Department secured €227 million additional temporary funding in 2021:
- €147 million for University pension schemes and to strengthen University balance sheets
- €80 million for the safe re-opening of the higher education sector in the 2021/22 academic year
This investment was for one year only and temporary, making the 2021 figure look unnaturally high and skewing the analysis published by the Parliamentary Budget Office.
Removing temporary funding in both 2021 and 2022, the increase year on year for core Voted higher education funding, Programme B, is 7%, or €125 million. The detail is set out in the attached table.
Table: True core ncrease in Voted higher education funding from 2021 to 2022
|
|
Supplementary Estimate 2021
|
Revised Estimate 2022
|
Movement from 2021 to 2022
|
Movement from 2021 to 2022
|
|
|
|
|
€
|
%
|
|
Higher Education Funding
|
€2,147,051
|
€2,087,421
|
-€59,630
|
-2.78%
|
Less
|
2021 once off funding
|
-€147,000
|
|
|
|
Less
|
Temporary Covid
|
-€80,000
|
-€20,000
|
|
|
Less
|
Temporary National Recovery and Resilience Plan
|
|
-€19,000
|
|
|
Less
|
Temporary Brexit Adjustment Reserve
|
|
-€3,500
|
|
|
|
Core Higher Education Funding
|
€1,920,051
|
€2,044,921
|
€124,870
|
6.50%
|
Higher education investment in 2022 is over €2 billion (€2.4 billion including investment through the National Training Fund).