Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The position on higher education funding is that last year we provided an additional €36.5 million and another €64 million this year, which brought it up to €100 million. Part of this is being funded through the national training fund. There has been a significant increase in the higher and further education budget over the past two years. There is, of course, the issue raised by Peter Cassells on whether we should move to a new income contingent loan scheme, and I know the committee recently wrote to me about this. This clearly is another strand. In terms of the issue of providing, as Peter Cassells sought, additional State funding and additional funding from employers, we have moved forward with this. We have also indicated that over the next two years there will be additional increases on these from the Exchequer and the training fund source. We are going ahead in making provision for additional funding. We are also reforming the allocation model, so the way in which money will be allocated will be more equitable and more effective in promoting expansion and the goals we have set for the higher education system in terms of access and meeting skill needs.

In terms of the longer term, of course we have committed in the ten-year plan to a €2.2 billion increase in the investment in capital at higher level and this is a massive increase. As committee members know, the Exchequer fund provision up to the mid-term capital review was only €110 million in Exchequer and €200 million in public private partnerships. This is a massive expansion of our commitment to the future investment in third level facilities on the capital side.

With regard to SUSI and grants, although we made some changes to improve the terms of access to grants, the main thing is the changes in the economy. They are means-tested schemes and the proportion of people who are qualifying is down slightly as a result of the reduction in unemployment. There has been some reduction in grant holders as a result of this but there has been no restriction in the terms of access in any of these areas.