Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Even before Covid-19 hit, higher education in this country was in a sorry state because of the impact imposed by misguided austerity. In February, before Covid-19 arrived, further and higher education were still suffering from the cumulative impact of €550 million in cuts and were operating with less than the funding that existed in 2007. Student to academic ratios in that period went from 16:1 to 20:1. The numbers in third level went up by an incredible 50% while all of those cuts were being imposed.

The pre-Covid-19 Cassells report suggested that we needed at least an extra €600 million by 2021 and €1 billion extra by 2030. That was the sorry situation. To put it dramatically, there was more investment per horse in this country than there was per student for most student categories pre-Covid-19.

Now, how can a disgraceful situation like that not make our capacity to deal with Covid-19 for students and our third level sector all the more difficult, notwithstanding the positive decision to set up the new Department and some additional funding? It is not even enough to bridge the gap of the austerity cuts the Minister's Government had previously imposed or to bring us anywhere near the level of investment which now needs to dramatically increase in the light of Covid-19.

Of course, one of the impacts, which is relevant to the Covid-19 situation, is that this has put pressure on third level institutions to concentrate on ratcheting up numbers to get registration fees and make money out of over-priced student accommodation on campus as well as to increase their reliance on the higher fees they receive from international students. I spoke to two people in universities today and have heard that universities are over-promising what they can deliver in terms of a face-to-face experience in the environment of Covid-19 because they are desperate to get the numbers in and because they want people to come into the student accommodation to get the revenue, even when the students are uncertain. They do not know what they are facing. They are not going to get face-to-face lectures. It is highly questionable how much face time they will get at all. Many of them are wondering whether to come. Should they pay out big deposits to get student accommodation? Will they get shafted the way they did in February, when they paid deposits and rent upfront only to be put out because of the pandemic? They are asking whether they will they be in the same situation again.

Against that kind of background, it seems simple. It is not as if this is an easy situation - I understand that. However, there was never justification for registration fees - they are the highest in Europe - and they should simply go now. There is no justification to charge €3,000 to students whose families may have also lost income on top of the capacity of students to gain employment while studying being significantly diminished. That is my main call. The Minister should get rid of the registration fees. He should do it now. They should not have been there in the first place but there is absolutely no justification for them in the context of Covid-19.

We should get our levels of investment in higher and further education up to something like the European standards. Where could the Government find the money? A total of €700 million is going on research and development tax relief, mostly to a few big corporations. Why not redirect some of that money to our universities?

I do not expect the Minister to answer my main points but I wrote to him on 13 July about psychiatric student nurses. They have been told that after they do their placements for six weeks they will have to self-isolate for two weeks but they cannot have other employment because of Covid-19. They are looking for some financial assistance because they cannot work.

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