Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am nearly embarrassed to start talking now about Tipperary without mentioning Carlow.

For counties like Tipperary, there has been some positivity on the third level education front. This provides the opportunity to study closer to home, if that suits the course people have chosen or have been accepted for and is more than welcome. The fact, however, that the technological universities that I am talking about here have less funding allocated to them than the so-called traditional universities is a matter of shame and needs to be addressed.

It must also be remembered that it has never has been more difficult to make ends meet for those students who still have to travel for college. The rising cost of living has hit every sector of society. People on limited or fixed incomes are particularly affected and students can be counted among them.

While I will not ignore the budget commitment to increase grant maintenance payments and so on, the unfortunate point is that in real terms, the SUSI maintenance grant has declined by 25% over the past six years and we have to take the term “increase” with a pinch of salt.

Furthermore, it is looking as though inflation will have practically exhausted those additional payments by September. Despite this, Sinn Féin’s proposal to introduce a three-year rent freeze and to put a month’s rent back into the pockets of struggling student renters was rejected by this Government. The fact is that that system has been consigned to austerity since Fine Gael came to power. That it was supported by Fianna Fáil since 2016 has not helped matters.

However, despite opting for the reliance on student fees, public funding per student is 37% lower than in 2008. Imposing fees on students has not worked and the wonder is that Government parties had suggested that it would.

Like Fine Gael’s welcome U-turn on the student loans, it must rethink its current approach and take measures to provide, among other things, the capital needed for those institutions, such as investment in affordable student accommodation.

The fact that extended SUSI supports to part-time learners is being seen as a long-term objective is also frustrating, given the significant need we have for workers and the shortfalls we have seen across sectors, especially in the wide span of healthcare specialists. We need to see action on addressing this funding gap in the upcoming budget.

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