Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has been Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science for two budgets. In October 2020 he announced an additional €20 million for SUSI which was very welcome. The Department spent the same amount on SUSI in 2020 as it had in 2019. We are on track for a slight increase in 2021, but nowhere near the €20 million announced in his first budget. Last month, he announced an additional €35 million for SUSI but only in response to my question did he clarify that this would in fact be an increase of €15 million next year because it would not kick in until September. I urge him to bring forward the measures he announced for SUSI to take immediate effect, particularly increases to the SUSI maintenance grant. Expecting students to wait until next September does nothing to address the cost-of-living issues they are facing now.

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