Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I do not have a lot here. Many of the questions have already been asked on maintenance grants and funding. I have one observation and one question, maybe and I will see if there is any follow-on from that.

The Estimates include a lot of one-off reductions, and they are all welcome things, such as the one-off reduction in the undergraduate student contribution, the one-off reduction in the contribution fee, a one-off payment for student maintenance grants, one-off increase of €1,000 for SUSI, a one-off payment of €500 for researchers and the one-off provision for the third level sector to deal with rising energy costs. I am not saying that none of these are not welcome and I know the context. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is standing behind the Department with a big stick and so on. It will not always be possible to get the long-term funding commitments that the Minister and Minister of State might want. However, I am also conscious that it is reckoned that inflation will run at about 8% next year and the cost-of-living crisis is not going anywhere. It will continue to be a problem. Some if not all of these things will have to be built into long-term spending. I know the Minister of State is not going to give budgetary commitments to me on 30 November and I do not know if he can offer any comment on it. There are very high student contributions and the one-off reduction is welcome but it is a big cost for families. Another thing that stands out is the third level institutions' energy bills. They are very significant and have large estates with buildings and so on. There is no doubt but that we will have to come back to that.

Then, my question is what is the budget for Generation Apprenticeship?