James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 104, 105, 107, 110 and 112 together.

I note that a number of Deputies have similar questions and that these have been grouped. We will probably go around the House to take supplementary questions.

As I have said a number of times this evening and over recent months, I am acutely conscious of the financial challenges facing students and of the need for the progressive implementation of measures to address costs as a barrier to education. I am quite alarmed to hear that people are telling the Deputy they are unsure whether they can afford college because the entire system of SUSI grants, fee supports, contributions and interventions is geared towards avoiding that situation. Very significant supports are available and the income threshold stands at an all-time historic high of €115,000, meaning your household income has to be greater than that for you not to get some kind of support. I do not know if the people the Deputy has mentioned are in that situation and are earning more than €115,000 but, if they are and cannot afford these fees, we may need to have a conversation about that. There are a lot of supports. We had this discussion earlier on. There is evidence that people are not claiming some of the supports that are available. They may not be aware of them and they are not applying for them. If that is the case, we can engage on that point to see what exactly is missing there that leads people not to avail of the supports they are entitled to.

As the House will be aware, almost all full-time undergraduate students have their tuition fees paid in full by the State. The free fees initiative has been there for some time and the Exchequer still pays for it every year. Almost half of all students have their student contribution fee paid in full or in part by the State. The threshold for those interventions has increased again this year. I mentioned that €115,000 is the highest income at which support is offered but there is a sliding scale under which people can get support at 100% of the student contribution, 50% or €500. The House will be aware that a temporary once-off reduction of €1,000 was introduced in the last three budgets. That was part of a cost-of-living package that was put together to support students and other sectors of society. I am very keen to continue to support measures like that but it has been confirmed in recent weeks that there will not be a cost-of-living ancillary package across Government this year so we will need to do something different in budget 2026. We need to look at a different policy approach and a different funding approach.

I hosted an event on the cost of education in early April to better inform that approach and to better understand the interventions that are necessary and what kind of measures would be most helpful and most impactful. I met with representative groups. I will continue that consultation over the summer. I met with the previous executives of student unions. I understand new executives will be coming in around this time. I look forward to meeting them over the coming weeks.

I reiterate my absolute commitment to all of the commitments of the programme for Government and not just one. We have had a lot of focus on one in recent days but the programme for Government includes a number of commitments relating to my Department. I will work through each one of them. A number of them have already been fulfilled. I will continue to work through them all. I will honour every single commitment insofar as I can. However, it is also important to realise that it is not feasible to deliver every programme for Government commitment in full in year one. That is important to realise. There are commitments that are spread over the lifetime of the Government, which is exactly how I will approach them. I am working my way through them. That will be challenging at times. It is stated that this is to be done in a financially sustainable manner. That is part of it. I do not cherry-pick. I take it as it is. However, I fully intend to address these commitments, including reducing the student contribution over the lifetime of the Government and bringing about a system that is not temporary, once-off or a question of "will they, won't they" every summer, as we have now and have had over the last three summers, but that is permanent, costed and sustainable and that will form part of the baseline Estimates going forward so that students have certainty about where it is going in the future. The interventions of recent years were certainly welcome but progressing in a permanent sustainable manner will better serve students and their families and give them the certainty they need.

See this speech in context