James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following: "recognises that:

— the Government is committed to easing the burden for students and their families;

— the Government will progress its Programme for Government commitments to improve supports for students by increasing maintenance grants, reducing the student contribution fee throughout its term, and developing a multi-annual plan to deliver new student accommodation; and

— stable, predictable policy making should be grounded in the annual budget process cycle, which is currently underway, this is in keeping with decisions on student contribution fees over the past three years;

acknowledges:

— the transformative impact the expansion of third-level and higher education has had on generations of Irish people, our society and our economic success;

— that Ireland leads the way internationally in education, outperforming the European Union (EU)-27 average in third-level educational attainment across all age groups, and in all but one age group, Ireland exceeds the EU average by more than 20 percentage points;

— the step change in research funding since 1997, through the Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions and Research Ireland building the foundations of our economic success with major research institutes across our higher education network; and

— the unlocking of a €1.5 billion funding package through new National Training Fund legislation in the coming months that will include increased core funding for higher education and capital funding to help build on that economic and social progress;

welcomes:

— that the Government will advance measures that will permanently reduce student contribution fees in an equitable manner, moving away from reliance on temporary subventions;

— that the Government has already approved the major changes to the Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) grant, with expanded eligibility from September 2025, with the special rate maintenance threshold rising to €27,400 in line with social welfare increases, all other maintenance and contribution thresholds will increase by 15 per cent, and thresholds for postgraduate and part-time fee support will also be raised;

— the unprecedented rise in the SUSI income threshold to €115,000, the highest level ever, broadening access to supports including the student contribution grant;

— this means that 80 per cent of Irish households are now eligible for full or partial supports towards the cost of higher education;

— that only 20 per cent of households may be liable to pay the full student contribution fee; and

— ahead of Budget 2026, an options paper will be published, which will identify costs and potential impacts of various policy options aimed at reducing the cost of tertiary education, this paper will help inform decision-making ahead of Budget 2026;

commends:

— the Short-Term Activation Programme for driving the development of student accommodation, with 116 beds nearing completion at Maynooth University, and proposals for a further 493 beds at University College Dublin and 405 beds at Dublin City University currently at tender evaluation stage, this progress builds on the delivery of additional units across several other universities;

— the promotional campaigns that have significantly boosted the supply of student accommodation through the Rent-a-Room Relief scheme, which enables homeowners to earn up to €14,000 per annum by renting vacant bedrooms thanks to these efforts, approximately 4,000 bedrooms are available to rent throughout the country;

— the introduction of the Rent Tax Credit to ease accommodation costs that was launched at €500 in 2023 and doubled to €1,000 in 2025, this credit is available to students in purpose-built student accommodation, private rentals, and digs, and can also be claimed by parents on behalf of their student children for eligible rents paid since 2022;

— the Programme for Government commitment to further progressively increase the Rent Tax Credit which will directly benefit students and their parents; and

— the allocation of funding from the Dormant Accounts Fund to support students from Traveller and Roma communities, as well as those with experience of the care system, with the cost of accommodation when living independently while attending third-level education;

notes that:

— almost all full-time undergraduate students benefit from full coverage of their third level tuition fees through the State's Free Fees Initiative, and that almost half of all students receive full or partial State support for their student contribution fee.

— while free-fees eligible students are responsible for the base rate of the student contribution fee, many receive full or partial support through SUSI grants based on their eligibility;

— recent years have seen significant enhancements to the SUSI grant scheme, including the introduction of the €500 Student Contribution Grant, which permanently reduces the student contribution for eligible students, alongside a range of additional supports available through SUSI;

— the Minister for Further and Higher Education Research Innovation and Science will bring a long-term student accommodation strategy to Government later this year with the explicit objective of increasing supply and reducing the reliance on the private rental market;

— engagement with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is ongoing to address the impact on students of the proposed rental reforms; and

— engagement with the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitisation is ongoing regarding National Development Plan funding for student accommodation; and

further notes that options for revising student supports, including adjustments to the student contribution fee rate and SUSI student contribution supports, will be considered as part of Budget 2026.

Of course I will address my remarks to the people in the Gallery, as I always do, and indeed to the people of the nation, whom I serve. I welcome the students in the Gallery tonight. I have met many of them already and look forward to meeting those I have not yet met in the course of their term ahead and my term ahead. I also welcome the debate. I agree with some, but not by any means all, of what was said. I reject some of the cheap populism I have heard just now but I do agree with some of the points that have been made about the priority of education and its position as a fundamental building block for progress as a nation, a society and an economy. I welcome the motion this evening as a timely opportunity to discuss all of that and the central role of further and higher education in our society and economy. Education is the very bedrock of why I got into politics, why I joined Fianna Fáil and why I made education a key policy platform when I rewrote my party's constitution a few short years ago. I firmly believe in access and excellence in education as a driver of positive change for our country. For me, Fianna Fáil is the party of education.

We have led the way on every major expansion of education in Ireland. From the driving transformative ambition of Patrick Hillery to the unprecedented step change of free secondary school education under Donogh O'Malley and the innovation of the Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, in establishing a dedicated Department of further and higher education in the first place, we have relentlessly and consistently pushed out the frontier. I am proud to be in the privileged position of serving in office to push out on that work and to build on that heritage with our colleagues in Government, Fine Gael and the Independents.

The story of our country over the past several decades is a remarkable tale of economic transformation and social mobility. It is a history that is inextricably bound up with the expansion of our education system. We went from a primitive agrarian economy to an advanced industrial knowledge economy in the space of a few decades. We did that through sustained investment in education and innovation, and we will continue to do that on my watch and throughout this Government's term. The virtuous cycle of education and economic growth creates the resources we need to invest in our social systems and infrastructure, improving quality of life and opportunities for all citizens. That investment and enhancement create the resources that support the public good and everything else that we do. This narrative of a failed state we sometimes hear from the Opposition sees education as just another football to be kicked around.

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