Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy just dismissing this and saying we should have ad hoc decisions on measures taken every week is not the appropriate way to run the budgetary process. What I said very clearly yesterday and again today was that we acknowledged the pressure many families and students faced. That is absolutely understood by everyone in the Government.

What we have said we will do around the budgetary process in the coming period is examine the cost-of-education paper, on which the Minister is working. This will inform the ongoing negotiation as part of budget 2026. In that budget, we will take decisions on how we can support continued affordability of public services. A key part of that is further and higher education. We are saying that we will do that within the confines of what we set out on budget day. This is the way annualised budgeting has worked for many years and the Deputy should not dismiss that.

What we have said very clearly is that we will move away from one-off temporary measures. What that meant last year was the measures taken relating to third level fees were temporary. We are approaching it this year in the context of seeing how we can provide continued and permanent changes for next year. The Minister, Deputy Lawless, is looking at that in the context of SUSI grants, reckonable income and the student contribution fee. That is what we are saying to people. It is around budget 2026 that we will set out what measures will be taken for next year. That is how we are engaging in this. It is unfair to just dismiss that by referencing politics and whatever else the Deputy said. That is unfair on the budgetary process. It is important, across every measure in Government, that we set out the overall allocation that will inform tax and expenditure policy for next year. We will engage in good faith with all our ministerial colleagues around their priorities. Obviously, affordability in education is one of them, which is understood fully by everybody in Government. It is through the budgetary decisions we take that we will set out what the fee threshold will be next year. That was the same in previous years when we had a cost-of-living package and a permanent package. What we are saying this year is that we want the measures we take to be taken on a permanent and sustained basis. It is on that basis that we are engaging in budgetary negotiations.

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