James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

The threshold for full fee support is a household income of approximately €65,000. Under budget 2026, a household income of up to €120,000 is eligible for fee support. For example, that includes a household with an annual income of €119,000. If there are two people in a family, with one earning €60,000 and the other €59,000, or alternatively a solo earner on €119,000, which are good salaries by most accounts, they will now get fee supports, including a €500 cut and a €500 fee grant, which effectively means they are paying €2,000 this year. That is progress.

In terms of the income tree, if we look at the ESRI statistics and so forth, we will see that up to 80% of households are covered by fee supports. Only 20% of households actually fall outside of that.