James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

To answer the Deputy's second question, yes, I will commit to increasing funding in education. I have announced that already and brought this before Cabinet where I secured approval to do so.

The National Training Fund is a €1.485 billion pot of moneys which is collected through employer levies to support training and educational needs. There is a need for legislation to unlock that fund because the fund, as it is currently construed, has a particular set of categories under which it can be spent. I wish to broaden them to include core funding for the higher education institutions among other things. This requires a minor legislative change but that is a Bill I intend to bring before the Houses this year. I am currently working on drafting heads of Bill with my Department and legal teams. I secured Cabinet approval for that recently. That will mean an additional €150 million per annum will be included in the core funding to universities, which is a really significant move. This, of course, stems from the Funding the Future framework, which was published in May 2022. It followed the Cassells report from a few years earlier, which identified options available to put higher education on a sustainable footing and examining different options for our core funding for the universities. That is now progressing. It is in the programme for Government and is a commitment we have made. It is something I have already advanced in my first few months in office and, as I said, I have Cabinet approval to now progress that further through legislation, which I hope to bring before the Houses at the earliest opportunity.

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