Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. As she said, she has made a submission in respect of it to the group looking at reform of the SUSI scheme. As she said, at the last budget, the Government took a number of decisions to improve the student grant scheme, in particular the increase to all student grant maintenance payments, including the special rate of grant of €200 per year, which will benefit all students entitled to receive a maintenance grant. The income threshold to qualify for the standard rate of student grant increased to €1,000 and the qualifying distance criterion, which is an important one, for students to qualify for the non-adjacent rate of grant will be reduced from 45 km to 30 km. These were all positive measures the Government took on the last occasion. It also provided additional funding to the student assistance fund for students eligible for higher education institutions who were experiencing financial difficulties in college. That fund can be very useful to students who are in particular difficulties financially, in supporting students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds and in providing emergency financial support. In the 2021-22 academic year, that fund is now €18.5 million, which is quite substantial.

The Exchequer contributes approximately €340 million to meeting tuition fee costs of eligible undergraduate students in higher education and spends €365 million on student grant supports via SUSI. In addition, the Exchequer pays the student contribution of €3,000 per annum, in full or part, for circa 66,000 students. That said, we are anxious to do more, especially on the student support side and the SUSI grant size. We will, in the context of the next budget, examine what more can be done to improve access to student grants and the various criteria governing the SUSI scheme. We will examine some of the suggestions the Deputy made in the context of the Estimates for the subsequent academic year beyond the next budget. That is the context in which this will be looked at.

The Deputy made reasonable points. On what the Minister, Deputy Harris, said, there is a balance to be struck, to be fair, in maintaining focus on study and so on.

Equally, however, the threshold is perhaps an area that can be examined into the future in terms of the earnings cap of €4,500. We will certainly examine that.

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