Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On PhD students, we will fund the IRC and the SFI for those stipends. I expect those stipend increases to be paid between now and the end of the year and I will get Deputy Colm Burke a detailed note on it. The Deputy will also be pleased to know that 4,809 students in Cork will benefit from the additional student grant payment on 16 December. As Deputy Dillon rightly says, 1,736 students in Mayo will benefit from the additional payment on 16 December and I know that will help.

Deputy Dillon is right that we are only getting started and warming up. This reduction in student contribution fees is not the extent of my ambition for the cost of education, which is too high. I said that when I became Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and I acted on it in this budget in conjunction with colleagues in the Government parties. We will do more in the weeks, months and years ahead. We need to overhaul the student grant system, we need to do more on PhD students and postgraduates and we need to continue to drive down the cost of education. I still see barriers in cost and we have more work we need to do in the months ahead.

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