Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairperson for her questions. Speaking bluntly, the point she made about Erasmus is correct. My Department needs to make the case - and we will - that there are additional costs for Irish students accessing Erasmus abroad in comparison with students who live on the Continent. If I lived somewhere in mainland Europe, I could connect with universities and institutions in other countries using trains and the like. Here, because we live on an island, the cost of accessing Erasmus can be more prohibitive. I do not want to get ahead of conversations with Government colleagues but I will be looking at what more Ireland can do, including through moneys from the European Social Fund, ESF, to supplement the level of provision we are providing for Erasmus students, in order that anybody can go on that programme, regardless of economic background. We talk about wanting to be an international island and we are one. We are very much at the heart of Europe. In the post-Brexit context, as we want to build closer and deeper relationships with other European countries, there is a very strong argument to be made that we need to invest more in Erasmus, from a strategic point of view. It makes sense and that view is shared across Government. The ESF could be a way of doing more in that space. I am just sharing some honest thoughts with the committee and I have to do a little more work on this.

The other issue the Chairperson raised is a very fair one. It comes up a lot. If we see a significant increase in Erasmus students, what knock-on effects could that have on Irish students in what is already, quite frankly, a very competitive points race? I reassure students that the number of Erasmus places is ring-fenced and finite and it needs to stay that way. The conversations I am having with Government colleagues about how we can increase the number of places for students sitting the leaving certificate this year are separate to the those relating to the number of Erasmus places for students coming in, and must remain separate.

On the issue of student accommodation, I will make the following point, although it is not a short-term solution. I am thinking of the Chairperson's own part of the country. We have ambitious plans around technological universities. Her county will become a university county, and Castlebar a university town, as we develop the Connacht-Ulster technological university.

So far, however, we have been developing technological universities without building one student accommodation bed. I have been working with the Technological Higher Education Association, THEA, the representative body for this, on how that borrowing framework works. One of the things I saw during the pandemic - and I am sure the Chairman saw it in her constituency office - was that where a student had accessed student accommodation, at least the Government had a lever to pull in trying to make sure that student got a refund when something went wrong in terms of Covid. Where we were reliant entirely on private operators, it was not simple and we were pitting students against hard-pressed families for a limited number of accommodation units. I have started very exciting conversations with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, about how if we want to tackle the housing issue, student accommodation is a key part of it and we need to get to a point at which, from a policy point of view, we want to build more college-owned and technological university-owned student accommodation. That is a conversation we will have across the Government.

As total of 44% of students in Ireland, not an insignificant number, are currently availing of SUSI. Nearly one in two of our students is getting some financial assistance from SUSI, whether that is the registration fee paid in full or in part or a maintenance grant. We have seen by any metric access to higher education increase over recent years, but the point the Chairman made is very valid. The income threshold has not increased in a decade and, as a result, many families are falling between the stools. We have the SUSI review under way, the public consultation has just closed and we have set up a steering group that has student representative bodies, the Department of Social Protection and others on it. It is due to come up with some interim findings this summer, which I hope will be able to inform the Estimates process, and a full report by September. As a new Government we have shown good faith on this. We have already doubled, almost, the postgraduate grant and the income level you can have while availing of the postgraduate grant. I would like to see three areas focused on in the SUSI review: one, the income threshold point the Chairman makes; two, the fact that students who live in rural communities and who have to commute face much more costs than those of us who live in the commuter belt, who can get a DART, bus or train to college and go back home in the evening; and, third, the fact that currently we do not provide any financial support for part-time students, despite telling more and more people they can access education part time. I would be happy to engage with the Chairman further on that SUSI review, but that is an indication of where I would like to see it go over the coming months.