I thank the Deputy for raising the question. I do remember my days in the Kampus Kitchen. Actually in the students union, we led a protest when there was an increase in the price of coffee, even though I did not drink coffee, but it did not stop us having a great time having a protest.
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We set up our own coffee operation and we realised that there were very high margins in coffee - that was a take-away - and tea. I do not want to be promoting any more of this kind of activity but, anyway, the company was not too impressed. I can see Richard is nodding in agreement.
Sentiment score: 0.03
If we had had Deputy Boyd Barrett at the time, we probably would have had a more effective protest. Welcome back. In any event, I think the third level education situation has a broad range of issues. First of all, we have to have really sufficient funding and core funding so that the quality of third level education is high and that it rates internationally. That is very important. There have been, to be fair on the last Government and this Government, sustained increases in the core funding of higher education over three budgets now, a total of €164 million. In addition, additional Exchequer employer contributions have been secured, a further €100 million per annum committed to by 2030. That came out of that report some years ago. The other key area is in terms of research. I am very keen that we would step-change our investment in research, which is key for students themselves, but also for society and for the economy in terms of having really high-level, quality research activities in our universities that provide solutions to world problems but also then act as a very significant catalyst for new industries, new products and services. We did this before in the late 1990s and early 2000s. We are determined to do it again. Already as a result of this budget, there is about €425 million in research and innovation in the 2026 budget. That is part of a €2.3 billion NDP allocation. We have to do it, given what is happening in America, tariffs and everything, and threats to established ways of working. We simply have to really double down and reinforce our own capacity to develop our own indigenous industries and also to attract investment in respect of life sciences, renewable energy, technology and AI more generally. Then we have to invest in apprenticeships and skills. Really significant progress has been made over the last number of years. Combining that with the R and D tax credit, that is effective. In terms of supports for students and families, there was a €500 real cut this year. The cost of living measure was just a two-year provision right across the board, but we have embedded €500 of that cut to the student contribution fee. That is permanent. There is a higher SUSI income threshold as well now. It is now €120,000, the highest ever, extending support to thousands more families. There are 30,000 students living 30 km from campus. They receive higher non-adjacent SUSI payments as well. That is up. Then we have to look at the postgraduate students-----
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-----and make sure the cost for them is reduced significantly.
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The publication of a strategic student accommodation approach or strategy is imminent. The Minister took it to the Cabinet subcommittee recently. It involves looking at the specific issue of how we can give capacity to the technological universities in particular to facilitate the development of student accommodation, either on the site that they may have, adjacent or wherever. The Minister has quite innovative approaches, which will draw on the need for the private sector to be involved. The scale of what is required will need private sector engagement and involvement. Again, we acknowledge that there has been a historic challenge to technological universities because they never had borrowing capacity. Mechanisms are being looked at between the Minister for higher education and the Minister for Finance in respect of that and good progress is being made. Along with the housing strategy in due course, and very quickly thereafter, there will be a strategy in terms of student accommodation also.
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