Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for this important and timely question. The Government has committed to planning for a significant increase in on-site attendance in the tertiary education sector in the next academic year. Following intensive consultation with sectoral stakeholders, staff, student representatives and university management, I published A Safe Return: Plan for a Safe Return to on-site Further and Higher Education and Research in 2021/22, the central tenets of which are the protection of and provision of supports to students and learners. The plan was written by students and staff. Its purpose, among other things, is to enable maximum on-site provision of activities, to support the ongoing public health requirements and crucially, to address the core of the Deputy's question, to support the ongoing needs of students and learners.

Institutions and providers are currently progressing their own detailed plans and work. This will include planning for orientation and for reorientation, which I think is the Deputy's point, and transition programmes to assist students in familiarising themselves or refamiliarising themselves with the on-site environment and learning. The approach to providing support for students returning to campus and the need for resources to support these students has been examined by a group I established called the student and learning well-being and engagement group, which was chaired by the Union of Students in Ireland, USI, and supported by my Department.

My Department is finalising the funding that we will require for that safe return with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. As part of that, we will look at some additional measures that we can take to support students returning to college after a year of Zoom and to support students setting foot in college for the first time who may have left a structured education environment in March 2020, when sixth year moved online. This funding will provide additional supports for students and will help with the plans that individual institutions have for orientation and reorientation to help students to refamiliarise themselves. I expect it will include additional funding for student mental health because, while people are excited to return to campus, I am conscious that it is an anxious time for many and that additional supports will be required. I hope to have clarity about that in the week of 19 July.

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