Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I hope to respond to several of the issues raised by my colleague, Deputy Howlin, but it would require more time to respond substantively to his points on climate, housing and health. I look forward to debating that and would very much contend that the Government has robust strategies in those three areas. A fair comment would be that it will be on the implementation of those strategies that we will be judged in the weeks, months and years ahead.

I am pleased to have a brief opportunity to introduce a series of measures my Department is bringing forward as part of budget 2022, along with my colleague, the Minister of State with responsibility for skills and further education, Deputy Niall Collins. This budget sees an investment of €347 million in further and higher education, research, innovation and science, making this a Department with a budget of more than €3 billion and the fifth largest Department in terms of current expenditure. With this significant new investment, we will be in a position to fund several major priorities for the Government and citizens to improve quality of life, address the cost of living and, crucially, begin to address the skills needs in the economy and society in terms of being able to deliver on several crucial issues, such as construction, retrofitting, the green economy and the likes.

I wish to share some of the key elements that will benefit students and their families, jobseekers, people seeking to reskill or upskill, employers and further and higher education and research institutions. Budget 2022 will see the first substantive changes to the student grant scheme in more than a decade. All Members will be aware of the critical situation in the context of student accommodation. Indeed, it was discussed at length during Oral Questions earlier today. There is also the issue of the increased cost of attending college.

I am announcing a €200 increase in the maintenance grant payment under the student grant scheme, but also an expansion of the income thresholds by €1,000 so that more families and students will qualify for the student grant and, crucially, an adjustment to the non-adjacent rates, which will now apply at 30 km, reduced from 45 km. Many students, particularly those in commuter belts and the orbital areas around cities and major universities, will now qualify for a significant increase in their SUSI grant. In some cases, that increase will be up to €2,000 more a year. We are also providing €20 million in additional funding to the SUSI scheme, recognising that there will be increased demand as a result of the pandemic. This is in addition to the recent announcement I made regarding an extra €17 million for the student assistance fund and an additional €5 million for mental health and well-being funding across the third-level sector, recognising the impact the pandemic has had on mental health and well-being.

I am delighted that in this budget we are abolishing the €200 post-leaving certificate, PLC, levy. PLC courses are the largest part of the further education and training, FET, system. Many people can access them for free but many thousands of other people are asked to pay €200 a year. In the interests of making FET as truly inclusive as possible, we will abolish that fee. There will be no Government levy or charge to attend a PLC course in any of our further education and training colleges across the country.

Of course, I want to help people get back into sustainable and quality jobs after the impact of the pandemic and the changes we are seeing in the Irish and global economies. It is crucial to ensure that we have people equipped with the skills to help meet the demands in areas such as housing, climate change and digital transformation. Supporting the Government's national recovery and resilience plan, this budget will provide 6,000 additional Skillnet Ireland places, 1,600 skills to advance places and a significant increase in the number of people availing of retrofitting training and near-zero energy building training. It will also introduce a core annual grant for any employer who takes on an apprentice. That is a key commitment of our apprenticeship action plan.

We often talk about a knowledge-based economy but, sadly, we live in a country where far too many people are still locked out of full societal and economic participation due to a lack of literacy, numeracy and digital skills. This budget will provide €3 million to inject real purpose and energy into our first ever national adult literacy, numeracy and digital literacy strategy. This means that every education and training board, ETB, will now be in a position to hire a literacy coordinator to drive the implementation of that strategy.

I make the point in the brief time available to me that I, the Minister, Deputy McGrath, and the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, are providing between the end of this year and the end of next year an additional €200 million to higher education to strengthen balance sheets in universities, addressing legacy deficits that have existed and increase capacity. This will mean that investment in higher education will be higher than ever in the history of the State, including at peak levels of funding back in 2008.

I am pleased that we have been allocated €5 million to deliver our new national access plan. It will have a particular focus on people with intellectual disabilities and how we ensure they can transition from the secondary school system into third-level system. In addition, there is €2 million for consent and gender equality initiatives.

My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, will take the House through the rest of the measures, but this is a good and exciting platform on which we can begin to deliver on these policies.

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