Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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9. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he plans to further increase the SUSI grant application threshold in budget 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26323/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for the question. I am committed to increasing the supports available to students and to addressing the costs of education for students and their families progressively over this year and the coming years for as long as I am privileged to serve in this office.

It is important to say that all proposals made regarding education expenditure, including student grants, thresholds, limits, awards and so on, are considered annually in the context of the budget. It is in October that these discussions will take place for real. They are already under way and well advanced but that is the time at which decisions will ultimately be made and communicated.

I have already been engaged very intensively on this and I intend to publish an options paper in the near future that will identify the costs and potential impacts of various policy options. There are multiple different levers within the grants system. There are thresholds, monetary amounts and different types of support that can be made available. There are also different types of grants, including fee grants and maintenance grants, and, as Deputy Paul Lawless mentioned earlier, there are also adjacent and non-adjacent rates. There are a number of moving parts and I have tasked my team with coming up with a matrix of all of those parts so that we can see the impact of moving one lever on another lever. Ultimately, we do not want one cohort of students to be deprived of services and support because we have changed something to benefit another cohort. We need to make sure the approach is consistent, coherent, fair and progressive.

The paper I intend to publish will be based on engagement with the sector and with stakeholders. I held an event in Croke Park earlier this year at which I met with multiple different stakeholders from the educational sphere. I met access officers, student's union representatives, people taking up various different courses, people from disadvantaged sectors and spokespersons for people who traditionally have struggled to attain the education they wished to attain. All of those voices will be heard in the discussion.

On the Deputy's specific question regarding the threshold, the special rate of maintenance threshold will increase from €26,200 to €27,400 this September. All other maintenance and student contribution grant thresholds will increase by 15% so there is already quite a significant increase coming this September. The postgraduate fee threshold will also increase to match the new 100% student contribution threshold, which will now be €64,315. That means a household with a net income of up to €115,000 will still benefit from grant support.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for his reply. As someone who grew up just after third level education was made free, I benefited, as did many of my peers and our parents and families. That opened up third level education, which might not have been a possibility before. We have seen those benefits. Obviously, that has evolved and changed over the last number of years. It is incumbent on this Government to reduce the cost of third level education. There are various ways in which that policy might be achieved. Some might be of the view that there should be free third level education. There are also other ways, such as through grants. That seems to be the route the Department is going down. If we can increase the rates and the thresholds, it will improve the opportunities for different families. Like the Minister, I know that many people in north Kildare attend Maynooth University. It is really important. With all of the economic difficulties we face, education is at the core of what we do and how we can grow the country in the future.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I know the Deputy's commitment to North Kildare and to our shared constituency. I agree that education is absolutely a core part of that. Education, talent, skills and investment in people is the core of our success economically as well. That is why we, as a nation, have achieved everything we have. It is because of our investment in education from the early days of the State. It is something I continue to commit to and continue to advance.

As I mentioned, the threshold now for some level of support is up to €115,000 for a household. That is significant progress. It is the largest increase since the creation of SUSI and it underlines the commitment to inclusion. This will ensure students in need of financial assistance are not disadvantaged with the rise in incomes. That is significant and will kick in from September.

There are other supports. There is the new part-time scheme for part-time students that was not previously available. This is now in place and I extended it to other courses recently. I am examining many other levers as well to ensure no student is priced out of education and no student is unable to access education because of financial barriers. The vast majority of students who need support should be getting it and if they are not, I want to hear about it, and change the system so they can get assistance.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for his feedback and his commitment. The two of us have benefitted from the amazing education system we have had in this country. We have both utilised it to the best possible degree in various forms. What we want, and the opportunity we have here, is to ensure that all the young people growing up in this new and growing constituency can access it, and I see Deputy Ó Cearúil is here. Obviously, there is a multitude of other issues around accessing education, maybe transport and housing and places to stay, but often the initial core barrier can be cost. The focus of this Government needs to be on ensuring that everyone has access to education. Third level education is key to driving possibilities. We can talk about AI all we want, and we can talk about all those things, but if we do not have the people in the system to make the best of it, our economy will not grow and develop in the way it should and our people will not develop the way they should.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I totally agree. I will raise some of the progress we have made in recent years and which is continuing again this year, from this September. On the cost of education, the threshold is one part of it, and an important one. The SUSI grant system is one part also. There are other factors such as student accommodation, which I am working on. I hope to publish a strategy on student accommodation this summer. This will address student accommodation in a consistent way with a uniform template, or a set of templates, available for student accommodation builds. That has not been there in the past or it has been somewhat ad hoc. It is something I have asked the Department to focus on and produce that template, which will then assist with further student accommodation being made available.

The Deputy referred to the cost of transport and travel for students who are commuting, often because student accommodation may not be available to them. On those costs, we have the student Leap card and fare discounts have continued this year. They were part of the budget negotiations by me last year in my previous role. That is very important for students.

There are other issues such as materials, the cost of laptops, books and so on. There are other types of support, whether it is support through fee subsidies, maintenance grants, support for accommodation or the provision of those services directly. It is multifaceted but I am certainly very aware of those challenges.