Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Department of Education and Skills is not raising its disregard for a fourth year. They are taking the fees up to €3,000. For example, one can take the case of a person who is studying medicine and one can add on numbers for the extra years. It is a rather small imposition.

I will address the tax breaks on private education. The disregard is the same across the sector. The private education sector is not partially funded by the taxpayer, whereas the public sector education is funded by the taxpayer. If a child goes to a private school the cap for tax relief is €7,000 per course per annum. They do not distinguish between the courses. That is the maximum in terms of fees that can be applied for as a tax relief. This is done to equalise the situation between the private and the public sector. The private sector third level education providers do not get any subsidies.

The Deputy mentioned the SARP arrangement, which we discussed at length. The IDA advocated for the special assignee relief programme, SARP scheme because it found that the lack of provisions such as this, which were available in other jurisdictions, made it difficult to bring key employees into industry in Ireland. Very often the availability of the key employee could generate a whole section in a plant and could lead to the employment of several Irish people. There is no tax relief for students of such persons in third level education. The reliefs apply to primary and secondary education. It is at the discretion of the employer and the guidelines would suggest that in cases in which a family come from abroad and the children have difficulty with the English language, they may have to go to a school that specialises in that or gives extra assistance and then the employer can invoke this clause. It does not apply to third level. It is not analogous to anything we are doing here.

The final point is that what ever way one runs the numbers, they do not seem to be inhibiting attendance at third level colleges. The numbers in third level education is at the highest ever, in excess of 180,000 students. I know parents are making great sacrifices to keep them there and it is not easy for a great many people. I know the grant system is of great assistance but the fact is that the policies being pursued by the Minister for Education and Skills at present on the global figures seems to be facilitating a great many people to attend university. The figure is at the highest ever in the history of the country. That is a reasonable achievement for the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn. We should be proud that we have a record number of 180,000 people in third level education.