Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is no doubt there is a gap in funding. The scale of that remains to be fully determined through engagement my Department is having with the Higher Education Authority, HEA, and the education institutions. We have seen a dramatic reduction in the number of overseas students. From memory, we have seen about 11,000 compared with a figure of up to 35,000 or 40,000 in previous years. It is a very significant reduction in overseas students. That is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.

The Department is preparing a new international education strategy to see how we recover as a country in a post-Covid environment but there is no doubt it will result in a financial hit to our institutions. The Government is heavily supporting our institutions with Covid funding and we will continue to engage with them as the problem begins to crystallise.