Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh. I will try to take the questions in sequence. The year-on-year movement for higher education is skewed due to the temporary Covid funding in 2020.

Of the €216 million allocated to my Department for Covid in 2020, €202 million was allocated to higher education. Removing Covid from the 2020 and the 2021 figures shows that the higher education programme B has actually increased year on year by €161 million. This is driven by measures in budget 2021. University and institute of technology grants, which come under subhead B4 and which I believe the Deputy is referring to, had €156 million in temporary Covid support in 2020. This skews the figure when comparing year on year. When one excludes that temporary funding, the real movement year on year under subhead B4 is an increase of 6%, or €58 million. This is driven by additional funding in budget 2021 for pay deals, research and additional calculated grade places. As the committee will be aware, the Government holds Covid money for this year centrally. My Department is expecting to receive an allocation of this money in the coming weeks as we work through the impact of Covid. Year on year and like for like, the level of funding under the general current grants in subhead B4 is up 6%. That is the reason the 9% is skewed. I hope I got all the Deputy's questions. If I did not, she should please come back to me.

On places, as of now and standing still based on the budget allocation, we have funding to provide 4,130 additional higher education places this September compared with last year. Of these, 2,700 are based on demographic projections and the remainder are based on the human capital initiative. Today we have the funding in place for just over 4,000 additional places. The challenge that has been put to me is can we do more above and beyond that. I believe we can. I have set up a working group in the Department which is working with the CAO, the universities and the institutes. It will report back to me just after Easter, at which time I intend to go to Cabinet to say what more we will be able to do, subject to the Government making funding available.

There are some constraints, mainly in the context of placements. It is important, in many areas, that for any extra place we create, we must also have a matching placement. We will be linking with the Department of Health for nursing and medical placements and with the Department of Education in the context of teaching placements. On a specific answer regarding the medical places and on how many additional places there will be above and beyond the 4,000, we will have clarity next month. I will be happy to come back to the committee with a detailed note or to engage with it further.