Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There are aspects of this budget I welcome. The Minister of State, Deputy Collins, has just outlined some of them in respect of apprenticeships and other elements of further education. The litmus test for the apprenticeships will if the backlog is cleared. We will be monitoring it very closely to ensure it is done.

This is the second time a budget has failed utterly to address the chronic underfunding of higher education. It is one, if not the key, issue most of us thought the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science was established to address in the first place. In the words of the Irish Universities Association, the budget "will not provide any extra investment in teaching and/or research activities in 2022". The Minister has stated the investment made will be the highest investment ever, but what he is not saying is we have the highest number of students we have ever had. We must stop making these comparisons and giving people the impression everything is okay and we are substantially addressing the issues. The budget is a stand still budget for the third level sector. Higher education has been kept in austerity mode and there is no extra investment for the things outlined.

I ask the Minister again to publish the Cassells report, which is on his desk. It must be published. The funding must be allocated with that to ensure the future of the third level sector. I welcome the increase in SUSI grants; it is long overdue. As the Minister said, it has been ten years in the making. It is shameful we have had to wait ten years for that. I contacted SUSI today because I had received many calls from students and I was alarmed to learn the increases will not come into effect until next September. Therefore, any current students who are suffering financially are not going to benefit this year from anything announced for SUSI in the budget yesterday. Is that correct?

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