James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Cassells report was published a number of years ago and that was superseded by the Funding the Future framework. That was published in May 2022 and outlines the vision for how higher education will be funded and how this will support students, employees and wider society. The framework identified a figure of €307 million as representing the quantum of increase in core funding required to deliver enhanced performance, strategic reforms and strengthened quality of outcomes. An additional €307 million was identified as optimal to progress the system.

Over a number of years, additional core funding is being prioritised through the Estimates process in order to deliver on the increased level of funding identified in this framework and to provide enhanced system capacity to respond to national priorities. The enhanced higher education system performance to be delivered in return for increased investment is to be aligned to strategic priorities defined in that framework, alongside parallel efforts to address the cost of education as a barrier to participation, which we discussed in the last question.

Over the three budgets since the publication of that strategy, an additional €164.4 million has been secured in Exchequer and employer funding, with a commitment to deliver a further €100 million by 2030 from the National Training Fund. The €164.4 million includes €58.7 million that was secured in the last budget - budget 2025 - for funding the future. That additional €58.7 million will create space for higher education institutions to increase staffing and capacity, enable a greater alignment of provision with priority skills needs and facilitate the further development of tertiary programmes.

With Government colleagues and elsewhere, I will continue to advocate for continued Exchequer investment in future Estimates processes to deliver on priority commitments, including priorities such as healthcare places, therapy places and tertiary programmes.

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