107. Deputy Maeve O'Connell asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science his views on his Department's plans for the reduction of the student contribution fee as per the commitments in the programme for Government. [37331/25]

Sentiment score: 0.16

I have one thing to add. I represent Dublin Rathdown, and UCD is obviously a significant institution within Dublin Rathdown. The key recommendation of the students' union there, in last year's report on student accommodation, was that reducing the student contribution fee is the most effective way to support students and their families. I think that highlights where the students are coming from and what their expectations are.

Sentiment score: 0.23

I thank the Minister. Will he detail the update on supports to help to achieve a better gender balance in apprenticeships?

Sentiment score: 0.58

I thank the Minister of State. There have been some notable successes. For example, with aircraft mechanics, women's participation has gone from 11% to 18%. That is possibly an area from where we could take some learnings on it. One of the other things I wanted to follow up on is the fact the targets for female participation are quite ambitious. From 2023 to 2025, we are looking for an increase of 124%. That is why I ask about the measures we have in place. How will we get there and how effective are those measures? The €2,666 contribution per apprentice is an interesting contribution and I wonder has there been any uptake by male apprentices of that or has that gone mostly to people employing female apprentices?

Sentiment score: 0.29

I thank the Minister of State. I will come back to the bursary again. Are there specific sectors where the uptake was more than others? Is there thus an opportunity to target other sectors with low representation, particularly of women? I agree and assumed hairdressing was the one area where there might be a balance to be struck. Are there learnings from sectors which may have been more successful in taking advantage of that bursary that can be applied to other sectors to try to encourage more women's participation? I agree, we are starting from a very low base. The numbers are moving in the right direction but the target of a 124% increase in two years is very ambitious and I would like to see that we have the measures in place to help us to achieve that.

Sentiment score: 0.31