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

Students and their families almost have announcement fatigue at this stage because measures are announced over and over again. They know how much money they have in their pocket or household budget because they are facing a cost-of-living crisis.

Some of it has been driven by international events, though the SUSI review highlights that the greatest burden comes from the cost of rent and the housing crisis, which is a domestic crisis. The SUSI review states that there needs to be a 25% increase in the maintenance grant, which is far more than the planned €200 increase. The entire planned increase of the student maintenance grant of €200, announced last October and to be introduced this September, will be completely eaten up by inflation before students even see it. That is why I called on the Minister, at the time, to bring the increase into effect immediately to help ease the burden, as inflation was already putting real pressure on families. The Minister refused to take that practical step. This was supposed to be a small step towards taking SUSI out of austerity mode. Now, with inflation at 6.7% or higher students will be worse off, in real terms, come September, despite the increase. Students and families are really anxious about what is going to happen this September.

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