I propose to take Questions Nos. 6, 11 and 33 together. As the House will be aware, the main support available to assist students with the cost of attending higher education is the student grant scheme. Under the scheme, grant assistance is awarded to eligible students attending an approved course in an approved institution who meet the prescribed conditions of funding, including those relating to nationality, residency, previous academic attainment and means. In other words, there is a set of rules around the scheme, those rules govern the eligibility for it and, in turn, the students progress. That continues to be applied. There is also a part-time scheme for specified undergraduate courses that is now available. It commenced for the first time in September 2024 and I recently expanded it to more courses. It provides fee support to eligible part-time students attending specified publicly funded undergraduate courses leading to a major award. This includes specified in-person courses and blended or hybrid courses, and its aim is to provide additional flexibility in respect of course provision to students who may be socioeconomically disadvantaged. Many students find the part-time option far more possible because they are able to continue to work and look after other commitments. The part-time course is a very attractive option for many people for that reason and it is only right that it should be supported through this fees scheme. That was not previously the case but it is now. As I said, I have recently expanded the provision and I will continue to examine the scheme because there may be other courses that fall outside it. I intend to continue to review it to see whether we can expand it to the maximum possible number of students. I turn now to the specific questions on the Mayo cohort. As of 15 May 2025, for the academic year 2024-25, some 2,655 applicants from Mayo were awarded a grant by SUSI for either a full-time or part-time course; 415 applicants from Mayo were refused a grant by SUSI for either a full-time or part-time course; and 58 applicants from Mayo had their grant revoked for either a full-time or part-time course. Those are the figures as of 15 May, a couple of days ago, and they may change as we come to the end of the academic year because, over the course of an academic year, there can be changes with individual students for different reasons. I do not expect that they will be consequential in terms of the numbers but there may be updates before the end of the academic year. It is fair to say that the vast majority of students who applied did receive funding. A small number were refused because they were ineligible and were not able to progress their applications, and a much smaller number again, 58, had those grants revoked. I hope that is of interest and assistance to the Deputy. Those are the figures for County Mayo.
Sentiment score: 0.25
There were a couple of options raised and I will try to come back to the Deputy on each of them. Career guidance and counselling is something I tend to very much support and I am keen to increase the provision of it. As we know, it is extremely difficult for students, typically at a young age, to make choices that may have implications for their entire life journey after that. There is a bit of a pressure point around how to make that decision at the right time very quickly. However, I intend to support that area in terms of further support for career guidance and for counselling for the burgeoning schools. Yesterday, the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, and I attended the Mount Lucas national construction skills hub. We saw the launching of a new platform, Skillnet MMC Accelerate, which is a website that allows those with an interest in construction careers to consider a breathtaking range of options and follow through on that interest by clicking through different courses, different study options and different apprenticeships to see how they might play out. I credit the organisers and those involved in that platform. I would like to see those type of platforms applied to many other sectors across the board. This is an example of what can be done and what is being done already. The Deputy spoke about students who may take on a course and find halfway through that it is not the right course for them. In the programme for Government, we have committed to examining second-chance applications. As with all these things, there is a balance because unlimited funding for continuing to change courses might be desirable from a societal point of view but economically unsustainable. There has to be some tipping point. I have some sympathy in this regard because I changed course. I studied maths originally, but I ended up studying law. I did it part-time, by night, while I was working in town. I came across to lectures every evening after work. Therefore, I have sympathy for people who end up pursuing second careers and different course options. It is a good thing to do. The day of the job for life is gone and people now end up pursuing many different paths through life and, indeed, change and retrain. Reskilling, upskilling and lifelong learning is a core objective of my Department to support. We are keen to continue to allow people have those opportunities at any stage in life to find their new path forward. In terms of the individual cases, the Deputy mentioned two that I noted. The first was around a student who left - maybe dropped out - halfway through the year. Then he mentioned what sounds like a very unfortunate individual who checked Google Maps and found that the other calculations did not seem to accord. If the Deputy wants to bring those cases to my attention after the session or if he wants to write to me on them - I will not get into individual cases on the floor of the House and I do not have the details - I would be quite happy to look into them and see if we can progress anything in the background.
Sentiment score: 0.21
I have listened to what the Deputy has said and I have taken note. He might want to follow up with me on that case as well. The first thing I would say, before I and my Department get involved, is that the student should consider appealing if they have not done so already. Indeed, I would advise any student who feels they have been wrongly denied a grant, or not had their correct level of grant funding applied, to access the appeals mechanism. I would refer any student who is dissatisfied to the relevant website, studentgrantappeals.ie, because there is a whole framework in place there. There is a 30-day window for such cases. I am not sure how far on this particular case is, but it might be of interest to the House in general to be aware of that facility. There is also a support webline, support@susi.ie. They have a phone number which can be accessed as well. There are a number of different ways in which SUSI will respond to individual cases. It may be appropriate for the Deputy's constituent who wishes to make a case with regard to mileage to consider an appeal as well. It is up to the individual student and family, but that is something could be looked at. In terms of the inheritance, the Deputy stated that the amount was modest. I do not know what the figure is - we can look into it in due course - but there are several different disregards in the system, such as holiday income, bursaries and grants from other sources. A number of different disregards are included. It is quite a complex system in terms of how the grants are considered, whether a student is eligible, what other income is there and what other payments they may be in receipt of. I do not know whether the particular case the Deputy mentions would satisfy one of those disregards. It may do; it may not. Certainly, it would with luck. However, every effort is made to ensure that when a student receives financial support towards their educational journey from other sources with the intention of helping them to achieve an educational goal, it is not punitive in terms of their subsequent support. We would not want to have one robbing Peter to pay Paul; they should be combined. If the Deputy wants to advise his constituent in the first instance to consider appealing if they have not already, he should look at the details of it. Then if the Deputy wants to engage with me on that particular case as well, I would be happy to look into it.
Sentiment score: 0.21
On the disability framework and the challenge posed, this Government wants to support people with disabilities in the fullest possible way to allow them to live the most meaningful and impactful lives as possible, and with as much support from the State as possible. This fundamental goal is writ large in the programme for Government and the entire Government is committed to delivering on it. Indeed, the Taoiseach has convened a Cabinet subcommittee, which is meeting regularly and of which I am a member, to address this societal and State goal. I put on record my commitment, as have all my colleagues in government, to the supporting this important issue. My officials and I are working closely with other Departments to support workforce planning responses by creating additional places in areas of acute skills need, ensuring a pipeline of qualified graduates for our health and social care workforce. More generally, my Department has a skills matrix and looks to the future to assess what skills are needed at particular times for different economic and societal goals and challenges. We have that skills framework and skills planning ongoing anyway, but we certainly have a renewed focus on the health and social care workforce at present. That work has been ongoing. A recent joint memorandum committed both Departments - the Department of Health and my Department - to funding the expansion of key healthcare disciplines, including therapies. Last week I announced a new pharmacy course in the University of Galway, which will start this September. There is a new dentistry programme in the Royal College of Surgeons that is also available for this September. Further expansion across medicine, pharmacy and veterinary will come on stream in 2026. We are expanding the number of professional healthcare courses that are out there, and across the country as well. That builds on existing progress, with nearly 1,000 additional places created in health and social care programmes in recent years. Further additional places were provided for this September. These include 15 additional places on the speech and language therapy BSc programme at the University of Galway, 40 additional places for occupational therapy at the same university and 15 additional paediatric medicine places through the Galway BSc programme. I have to acknowledge that Galway is playing its part. There are also ten additional physiotherapy places at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. It is a work in progress. We continue to examine ways to increase the throughput and output of therapists of all types in the system.
Sentiment score: 0.30
I mentioned some of the places we have provided and we intend to provide further places in these areas. There are also agreements regarding healthcare provision with Ulster University and Queen's University Belfast resulting in a further 389 places over the last two years. I visited Queen's University Belfast over the Easter break and met the president, Ian Greer. I also met some of the students from the Republic who are attending courses there. I am told they are excelling in their fields. They were certainly great ambassadors for the scheme. That provision from the Northern universities is welcome. We are also engaging with stakeholders across the sector to determine the number of additional places for 2025. We have provided multiple additional places already - numbering 1,000 last year - but I want to keep on providing further options. I recently asked the HEA to run an expressions of interest programme. The Higher Education Authority put out a call to the universities to see which universities were placed to offer further provision, increasing the output of therapists across all of the different healthcare disciplines. That is going extremely well. We have had very positive responses to it. I intend to update the Cabinet subcommittee on that. I may return to that in my next supplementary response.
Sentiment score: 0.27
I thank Deputy Connolly for his support in my visit to Galway last week. He is a great advocate for the college and works closely with the team. I believe he is a former student. That was a very good engagement. I agree with both Deputies on the real need to examine all options and all levers at our disposal to increase the number of disability workers. These include Springboard. I believe it could include apprenticeships and I have asked my further education teams to look at options to address this demand within that system along with more traditional higher education provision. A great deal of work is being done. Just this week, my officials had another official-level group engagement with different Departments. Deputy Currie asked what engagement is happening with other Departments. I have met the Minister for Health on the matter and we have had bilateral meetings on it. I have also met with the Minister for disability, Deputy Foley, and others. We have a Cabinet subcommittee that meets very regularly to progress the matter. It is an all-of-government priority. It is essential. As Deputy Currie has mentioned, placements are a challenge. My Department and my team can provide the courses and the education but the HSE and the different workplace settings need to offer placements to match. One cannot work without the other. That is an ongoing challenge.
Sentiment score: 0.25
I thank the Deputy for the question. I am committed to increasing the supports available to students and to addressing the costs of education for students and their families progressively over this year and the coming years for as long as I am privileged to serve in this office. It is important to say that all proposals made regarding education expenditure, including student grants, thresholds, limits, awards and so on, are considered annually in the context of the budget. It is in October that these discussions will take place for real. They are already under way and well advanced but that is the time at which decisions will ultimately be made and communicated. I have already been engaged very intensively on this and I intend to publish an options paper in the near future that will identify the costs and potential impacts of various policy options. There are multiple different levers within the grants system. There are thresholds, monetary amounts and different types of support that can be made available. There are also different types of grants, including fee grants and maintenance grants, and, as Deputy Paul Lawless mentioned earlier, there are also adjacent and non-adjacent rates. There are a number of moving parts and I have tasked my team with coming up with a matrix of all of those parts so that we can see the impact of moving one lever on another lever. Ultimately, we do not want one cohort of students to be deprived of services and support because we have changed something to benefit another cohort. We need to make sure the approach is consistent, coherent, fair and progressive. The paper I intend to publish will be based on engagement with the sector and with stakeholders. I held an event in Croke Park earlier this year at which I met with multiple different stakeholders from the educational sphere. I met access officers, student's union representatives, people taking up various different courses, people from disadvantaged sectors and spokespersons for people who traditionally have struggled to attain the education they wished to attain. All of those voices will be heard in the discussion. On the Deputy's specific question regarding the threshold, the special rate of maintenance threshold will increase from €26,200 to €27,400 this September. All other maintenance and student contribution grant thresholds will increase by 15% so there is already quite a significant increase coming this September. The postgraduate fee threshold will also increase to match the new 100% student contribution threshold, which will now be €64,315. That means a household with a net income of up to €115,000 will still benefit from grant support.
Sentiment score: 0.35
I know the Deputy's commitment to North Kildare and to our shared constituency. I agree that education is absolutely a core part of that. Education, talent, skills and investment in people is the core of our success economically as well. That is why we, as a nation, have achieved everything we have. It is because of our investment in education from the early days of the State. It is something I continue to commit to and continue to advance. As I mentioned, the threshold now for some level of support is up to €115,000 for a household. That is significant progress. It is the largest increase since the creation of SUSI and it underlines the commitment to inclusion. This will ensure students in need of financial assistance are not disadvantaged with the rise in incomes. That is significant and will kick in from September. There are other supports. There is the new part-time scheme for part-time students that was not previously available. This is now in place and I extended it to other courses recently. I am examining many other levers as well to ensure no student is priced out of education and no student is unable to access education because of financial barriers. The vast majority of students who need support should be getting it and if they are not, I want to hear about it, and change the system so they can get assistance.
Sentiment score: 0.34
I totally agree. I will raise some of the progress we have made in recent years and which is continuing again this year, from this September. On the cost of education, the threshold is one part of it, and an important one. The SUSI grant system is one part also. There are other factors such as student accommodation, which I am working on. I hope to publish a strategy on student accommodation this summer. This will address student accommodation in a consistent way with a uniform template, or a set of templates, available for student accommodation builds. That has not been there in the past or it has been somewhat ad hoc. It is something I have asked the Department to focus on and produce that template, which will then assist with further student accommodation being made available. The Deputy referred to the cost of transport and travel for students who are commuting, often because student accommodation may not be available to them. On those costs, we have the student Leap card and fare discounts have continued this year. They were part of the budget negotiations by me last year in my previous role. That is very important for students. There are other issues such as materials, the cost of laptops, books and so on. There are other types of support, whether it is support through fee subsidies, maintenance grants, support for accommodation or the provision of those services directly. It is multifaceted but I am certainly very aware of those challenges.
Sentiment score: 0.22
I thank the Deputy for his continuing interest in the Cavan project as well as others. More generally, on the Department's capital ceiling over the last period there is a dedicated capital envelope, which the Deputy referred to, that amounted to €300 million for the further education and training sector, FET. Available funding has increased again from a low base of €6 million in 2018 to €107 million in the current year. That is a very significant multiplier of the available funding for the FET colleges and the FET system. Funding for the FET capital projects is distributed through SOLAS under a number of different funding streams. There are 70 small- to medium-scale projects being progressed at the moment. This includes everything from minor capital works, emergency health and safety works and the strategic infrastructure upgrade fund, as well as devolved funding directly from my Department for minor capital works. I am aware the Cavan-Monaghan project is of interest to the Deputy. The proposal there is to build centralised accommodation on land owned and currently occupied by the Cavan Institute on Cathedral Road in the town. That building will have modern learning spaces, specialised areas, and social and recreation spaces, surrounded by open spaces to create a vibrant campus community. It will have a complete range of supports, including guidance counselling. We heard earlier how important counselling is to make sure students make the right choices at the right times. The campus will also include quiet spaces and informal learning spaces. The project received approval in October 2024, it passed through approval gate No. 1, AG-1, of the infrastructure guidelines and is progressing to the next stage, which is pre-tender, project design, planning, and procurement strategy stage. SOLAS is currently working with the Cavan-Monaghan ETB to progress this through the next stage. As the Deputy has flagged this as an area of interest, I will certainly keep a close eye on it and will update him as it progresses along. It is going well. It is past the first stage and is now at the next stage, which is the pre-tender stage. SOLAS, the Department and I are working to progress it. We will certainly make sure it moves quickly along.
Sentiment score: 0.32
I absolutely know it will be put to very good use. It is a fantastic and very exciting project and it is great to hear the history of that building, and indeed of the project and further education in the Cavan-Monaghan area. I thank the Deputy for the invitation to visit. I will certainly put that in my diary and will get there in due course. I would like to see it for myself. You cannot beat seeing it for real and meeting the teams on the ground to understand how projects are coming on. I thank the Deputy for his interest. He was involved in the original site. I will certainly keep a close eye on that and will get to it in due course.
Sentiment score: 0.42
I agree with the Deputy and I thank him for those points on access to the system for those who maybe would not have had that given they were coming from backgrounds where traditionally education or higher education was not a feature. The further education sector has been so progressive and has led so much in making education accessible to so many more families in a community setting and closer to home. It has made it easier to access education, despite economic reasons, family reasons or caring reasons, and has provided a welcome to, and has embraced, people. There is a very exciting new development relating to tertiary degrees, of which the Deputy is probably aware. I recently met many tertiary degree students from around the country at an event in Grangegorman. The option is there for students to start their training or educational journey in a college of further education in a local area closer to home, which makes it easier on many fronts. After one or two years in a college of further education they can then progress a to a more traditional higher education institution and go on to degree-level accreditation. That is a wonderful journey. There are many more opportunities. The Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, and I visited the National Construction Training Centre in Mount Lucas, County Offaly, yesterday. The careers that are opening up in construction are huge. Very exciting new journeys are opening there as well.
Sentiment score: 0.40
I thank the Deputy for his question and his kind words. I look forward to working with him to deliver for Kildare North and the country as we work together in this House and elsewhere. I know he is spokesperson for a related area as well. I want to acknowledge that and support him in his work. The plan to modernise research equipment is a topic close to my heart. It is something that I immediately addressed when I came into this role. I tasked a team within the Department and established a working group comprising academics, people from the industry with experience in the sector, and my own officials to consider how we might embark on a renewal exercise for fundamental research equipment across the sector. That is well under way. It is critical that we have that equipment available because that is the building block on which our experiments and research journeys take place. It is critical for training students as well. In addition to research equipment, it is also teaching equipment. Students need to be able to access the best in class in that form. The working group is making good progress. I addressed an Irish Universities Association event last week, where I reiterated my commitment to bringing a significant new funding stream to the sector to examine options as regards supporting the renewal and replacement of equipment and talent. One can have all the equipment in the world, but if there are no people to operate it, learn from it and use it, it is futile. I have, along the lines of the previous programme for research in third level institutions, PRTLI, a new undertaking that perhaps has not taken place for a decade prior to now. It was a very successful programme in the early part of the century. That is something on which I am engaging with the national development plan in terms of securing significant funding for it. The sector has warmly welcomed my indications in this regard. I am engaging with it intensively, and that progress is significant and substantial. I look forward to seeing the fruit of that when I bring it through the budgetary process later this year, all going well.
Sentiment score: 0.26
I entirely agree with the Deputy regarding the economic headwinds he referred to in his supplementary question. Part of our competitive offering is that we have such a strong talent base, we invest in education and we invest in research and innovation. Later today, I will travel to Brussels to attend a research council with European Council colleagues and ministers in related briefs across the European Union. We are very keen to support a successor programme in terms of Horizon funding. The Draghi report, which the Deputy will be familiar with, identified that research and innovation must be central to Europe's competitive advantage because it is a key part of our economic offering. It is the reason we have been so successful in attracting foreign direct investment, as well as in our own indigenous enterprises over many years. I intend to not just continue, but to double down and increase, widen and accelerate support for all of that activity. The Deputy asked about timing. This is a significant programme. This is not a one-off grant; I intend this to be a significant body of work which will span my term of office over the coming five years. It is envisaged as a multi-annual programme. I will make my case on the national development plan. I will, perhaps, return to the issue in my supplementary answer.
Sentiment score: 0.34
The Deputy mentioned the IUA paper published in March. I actually appointed the IUA to my working group and it is actually actively involved in it already. It is an excellent organisation and it is worthwhile to have it in the room for these discussions. The other thing I will say about the programme as I currently envisage it and through my work with the expert group is that it is intended to be a competitive funding call. It will not necessarily be a case of something for everybody but, rather, will be based upon excellence and submissions being made as part of a competitive process. An independent panel will assess applications. That is how the PRTLI was done before and it is how best-in-class funding applications in the research sector are done. It will not be automatic or immediate. Funding is the first step. The next step is the framework around the funds, such as what type of projects, equipment and research is being supported. I intend to cast a wide net because we should not be excluding any particular areas, although naturally there are Government strategic priorities. The IDA strategy was published recently. Things such as digitalisation, healthcare resilience and climate change are all core to its goals. I would put the semiconductor strategy into that mix as well. It is important. Cabinet recently adopted the national semiconductor strategy. The Deputy will be as aware as I am of the importance of Intel in our own constituency in Kildare North and of other organisations such as AMD and others throughout the country. They are all areas in which we have real global competitiveness. We are experts in those areas, have made significant progress in them and will continue to support them.
Sentiment score: 0.21
I thank the Deputy and acknowledge his continuing interest in this area and in the matter he referred to at the end of his question. More generally, at the outset, supporting the participation and success of learners with disabilities is a critical national priority. It is something I have been very much engaged in since I took up my role, as were my predecessors. The Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, is also very much engaged. We are very keen to make an impact and progress in this area. This progress is being made as part of the national access plan. This aims to increase the number of new entrants with disabilities to higher education institutions and to have more people with disabilities accessing further and higher education across the board. The latest figures available show participation has increased to 14.7% from 12.4% over the past three years. It is on target to reach 16% over the lifetime of the national access plan. In further education, 14,825 learners enrolled in FET programmes in 2023 reported having at least one type of disability. This figure constitutes 6.8% of all learners enrolled in that year. A range of existing supports and programmes are in place for learners with disabilities. The fund for students with a disability is provided across higher education and post-leaving certificate programmes, with an annual allocation of over €15 million. Many other supports fall within the scope of the fund, including assistive technology, non-medical helpers, ISL interpreters, transport supports, examination supports and many other types of supports made available to students where they need them. The programme for access to higher education, PATH, 4 funding stream under the national access plan supports my Department's goals of enabling all learners with disabilities to avail of higher education. Just this week, I was very pleased to bring to Cabinet increased funding for PATH 4 that is particularly targeted at learners with intellectual disabilities. We have had some very successful courses. The Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities has some outstanding learners. I visited An Garraí Beag, a Down Syndrome Ireland centre, in my area of Sallins last week. I also visited other centres around the country, including Field of Dreams in Cork recently. There is good progress. It is heartening to see people with intellectual disabilities who may never have considered that university or higher education was an option for them actually making that journey now, being part of that system and making a valuable contribution to it.
Sentiment score: 0.44
As acknowledged regarding PATH 4, I did commit almost €3 million in additional funding just this week towards that funding. I also intend to initiate a disability demonstration project, which will inform the development of the new policy framework for more flexible and responsive tailored supports for those students and their educational journey. A great deal of work is being done. Regarding the Fórsa claim, I know this is of particular interest to the Deputy. To give some brief background, personal assistants are employed in ETBs usually on fixed-term contracts. They are not paid outside term time, and there are different rules that apply. They are not public servants or covered by section 19 of the Education and Training Boards Act 2013 and they are not members of public sector pension schemes. They stand outside some of those provisions. Last year, the Department reviewed the hourly rate of personal assistants in response to discussions with a representative group of personal assistants. The Deputy may very well have been involved in that discussion. This led to a 42% increase in the hourly rate, which was a significant increase. The rate went from an average of €15 per hour to €21 per hour, with 8% holiday pay on top. Fórsa submitted a claim to the WRC subsequently. Several aspects were resolved through the WRC conciliation process, including confirmation that qualified personal assistants should be awarded contracts of indefinite duration and their entitlements to sick leave and holiday pay were raised. There was another meeting in March. Further requests have been referred to the Labour Court. It is important that we respect the industrial relations machinery. I know the Deputy has a very strong interest in this area. That work is ongoing in the WRC and Labour Court.
Sentiment score: 0.28
I acknowledge the Deputy's ongoing advocacy for this group and we have talked about it on a number of occasions already. I know he may be a little sceptical of interdepartmental reviews and the rest of it, but the last one made significant progress. Anyone would acknowledge that a 42% pay increase is a pretty substantial one. Certainly progress has been made but I acknowledge that elements of it are still in dispute. That conciliation process is ongoing and the State has engaged the industrial relations machinery with the various referrals. I am keen to engage on it and keen to facilitate that meeting. The Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, may also engage with me, along with the Deputy. I just need to make sure it is appropriate in the context of the industrial relations process that is live. I will take advice on that but if I can do it, I will.
Sentiment score: 0.34