Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I tend not to be overly partisan and I do not mean to be overly argumentative, but I think the comparison I made with the situation in Northern Ireland is fair. I state that because Northern Ireland is a devolved administration. I have no political jurisdiction in Northern Ireland. The Scottish First Minister managed to abolish fees. When is Sinn Féin, in government in Northern Ireland, going to do the same? Where is the commitment to doing that? When is that going to be delivered? The Department of Education in the North had a Sinn Féin education minister for five of the last ten years. The Deputy expects students in Northern Ireland to pay €5,247 every year, and yet she is giving out to me in this House about €3,000.

This aspect goes to the point of consistency. I want to reduce the contribution fee in this country. I have to do it as part of a sustainable funding model for the reasons Deputy Conway-Walsh outlined. We want more students to get into higher education and we want to fund higher education properly. Let us look at what we have done in this jurisdiction. The pandemic employment payment, PUP, was made available to students, the student assistance fund was doubled, 15,000 free laptops were provided, there was a €250 top-up to the student grant scheme and the first increase in the postgraduate student supports in a decade. We have done all this in a Department that is less than one year old. We want to do much more in this area, but I think we have already shown a significant level of commitment to students. I accept that we have much more to do. My direct answer to the question, therefore, is that we intend to introduce a sustainable funding model for higher education in our country this year.

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