Student Fees: Motion [Private Members]: 8 Jul 2025: Dáil debates (KildareStreet.com)

Dáil debates

Tuesday, 8 July 2025

Student Fees: Motion [Private Members]

8:05 am

Donna McGettigan (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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I move:

That Dáil Éireann: notes:
— comments by the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science James Lawless T.D. on RTÉ where he indicated that in the absence of a cost of living package this year student fees will rise; and

— the Minister's statement coupled with the refusal of Government to provide a cost-of-living package this year means student fees this coming September will be €3,000 which is €1,000 higher than they were last year;
further notes:
— students will be disproportionately impacted by the ability of landlords to reset rents to market rates between tenancies as most students only rent for nine months of the year;

— Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Browne T.D. has made clear that it will not be possible to provide a specific protection for students in the mainstream private rental sector which is where a majority of students rent;

— it is also not clear what protections, if any, will actually be provided for students in Student Specific Accommodation as this issue was not addressed in the Government's initial proposal and is only now being considered on foot of concerns raised by Sinn Féin, students' unions and others; and

— the cost of living is impacting on every aspect of student life and this increase to fees will heap further financial pressure on young people and their parents; and
calls on the Government to:
— introduce a cost-of-living package which cancels the scheduled €1,000 fee hike and reduces fees by a further €500, meaning the maximum fee this September would be €1,500 instead of €3,000; and

— permanently abolish student fees within two years.

I ask the Minister to have a look at those in the Gallery. These students are the future of our Ireland. They are the people who not only deal with the issues students face, but were also once students. Some still are. They are the people the Minister has turned his back on, as have the Tánaiste and the Government.

It is safe to say we all agree that education plays a crucial part in anyone's life. It is a right and not a privilege. It is the cornerstone of who we are, yet the Minister has chosen to hike the fees by €1,000 at a time of a cost-of-living crisis. Bryan O'Mahony of the USI has been crystal clear in his assessment that students are being treated as political pawns - used in pre-election sweeteners and betrayed post-election. The Minister's announcement of the raising of fees was not only poorly timed. It was a calculated attack. It landed right before the CAO change-of-mind deadline and just as student union officers were changing across the State. This was a deliberate attempt to push through an unjust fee hike knowing full well that the impact on students and their families would be devastating.

We cannot ignore the consequences of this decision. According to recent USI studies, 38.4% of students are experiencing extremely severe levels of anxiety.

Some 29.9% are battling depression and 17.3% are dealing with overwhelming stress. These are staggering figures and the fee increase will add an additional weight on the shoulders of those who are already struggling to make ends meet.

One student nurse from UCD pointed out that any increase to student fees will be detrimental not only to their mental health but also to their learning experiences. Nurses and midwives who are holding up the healthcare system on their shoulders are facing a myriad of hidden costs throughout their degree. These include additional travel and costs for mandatory clinical placements. They are already burdened by a level of debt which is forcing countless numbers of these graduates to emigrate in search of better opportunities.

Ireland is not a country for young people. Gearóid Folan, vice president of TUS students' union has been unequivocal in saying that students are on their knees financially. This proposal will push hundreds of students out of higher education and even worse it will discourage many more from even considering it. Is this the future the Minister wants for Ireland, a future which prices young people out of third level education? One parent shared their concern with us. They pointed out that while more students may qualify for the €500 SUSI grant, it does not actually put them ahead if the fees go up. In fact this parent still has to pay €10,000 to cover rent on top of student fees, food, travel and other living expenses. There are parents of multiple children in third level education and this fee hike will force them to make the decision about whether they can afford to send their children to college at all.

Let us talk about SUSI. The Government has long touted SUSI as a solution for students in financial difficulty, but for many SUSI is a distant dream. It is way out of reach for far too many students. One student asked why SUSI's motto is "supporting you all the way", when clearly it does not. Why is the Government turning its back on the very people who need it most? The Minister has seen the backlash and heard the anger of hundreds of students gathered outside this House and many more right up there. He needs to answer them. Why is he targeting them? Why is he attacking the future of our country?

How can the Minister say that education should be for everyone when he is actively building barriers that stop students from accessing the education they deserve? He cannot claim to stand for equal opportunity when his policies are creating a system that benefits only the wealthy. It is time to act. We call on him to support our Private Members' motion to introduce a cost-of-living package that cancels the scheduled €1,000 fee hike. We also call on him to reduce fees by a further €500 meaning the maximum student fees this year will be €1,500 instead of €3,000. We ask him to commit to abolishing student fees entirely within the next two years. Higher education should be an opportunity for all, not a privilege reserved for the few. The young people of this nation deserve better. They deserve the right to education without the shackles of debt or financial worry. It is time to stand up for them and not push students further down the road of inequality. I urge the Minister to do the right thing. He should row back on his fee hike, support our students and support our future.

8:15 am

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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I commend the motion to the House. The Minister and the Government are all over the place when it comes to student fees. The Minister went on the national broadcaster and scared the bejeysus out of every student and parent across the State when he told them in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis that student fees were going to go up. It came like a bolt out of the blue for every parent listening to that. For those with two or three children at college, that is an extra €2,000 or €3,000 they needed to find on that Sunday morning because of this announcement.

Since then, the Government has been all over the place, with Government Members contradicting each other, trying to play this down and trying to talk about envelopes in Estimates. We had the Taoiseach talking about windows and all the rest. The reality is parents want clarity. Every single day in the Dáil last week and this week, we put the same question to the Government: will the fees be €2,000 or €3,000 next year? Not one Minister was able to answer that question because they all know the decision the Minister announced is the one that holds. September will see fees of €3,000.

Not since Ruairí Quinn broke the promise that he made in the 2011 election have students been so betrayed by a Minister for education - a Minister for higher education in this instance. He is absolutely blind to the suffering that is going on right across the board. People are really struggling with rents going up, with prices going up and now the Government wants student fees to go up. We say that people have had enough. That is why we, along with the students of Ireland and other parties in opposition, will fight this Government tooth and nail. It is simple: education is a right and should not be a privilege. Maybe from Government Buildings and the ivory towers that Ministers live in, they think it will be okay and that parents will be able to find an extra €1,000, €2,000 or €3,000.

The Minister should talk to the Minister for housing. What did he do? He unshackled the landlords against these students, the same students who come September will have no protection whatsoever and landlords will be allowed to jack up rents as high as they want. This is a full-on assault by this Government on the students of Ireland and we in Sinn Féin will not stand for it. That is why we tabled this motion. I plead with every single TD to have the backs of students just like Sinn Féin has, have the backs of their parents just like we in this party have, and do the right thing. They need to make sure that student fees are not increased this September. Indeed, as Sinn Féin has shown, we need to abolish them.

The Minister will say that the resources are scant. However, the Government gave a €160 million tax break to landlords last year, which is more than it would cost to reduce student fees. It gave a €180 million tax break to the banks that made €4 billion in profit, which is more than what it would need to reduce student fees. I know where my priorities and Sinn Féin's priorities are. Unfortunately, we have a Government which is always on the side not of students or those who find it difficult, but on the side of the elite, the landlords, the bankers and all the rest. We will fight it tooth and nail on this. It needs to do the right thing and scrap student fees. As a first step this September it should make sure they are not going up; they should be coming down.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister must be completely detached from the reality of the cost-of-living crisis if he thinks it is okay to heap €1,000 on students and families this September. The Barnardos cost-of-living report for 2025 found:

One in five families cut back on or went without heating (18%) and electricity (17%) over the past six months.

More than two in five families going without or cutting down on basic essentials such as heating, electricity, food and medical appointments.

One third of parents (32%) went into arrears on energy bills due to insufficient income.

19% of families had to cut back or go without food over the past six months.

40% of parents said they skipped meals or reduced portion size so their children would have enough to eat...

That is the Ireland of today. The Minister intends to heap €1,000 extra on families at a time when people cannot afford food for themselves, at a time when rents are going through the roof and when the Government is introducing measures to drive them even higher. It is complete detachment from reality. The Minister needs to recognise the financial burden on families. This €1,000 is transformational for people. It is literally the difference between having or not having a future at third level and everything that goes with that in terms of career opportunities and life opportunities. It makes that much of a difference. Those are decisions families are faced with thanks to the uncertainty that the Minister has inserted into this. He needs to be very clear, support the Sinn Féin motion and guarantee that student fees will reduce this year and not increase.

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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What kind of government looks struggling students in the eye and says, "You're on your own"? That would be those sitting on the opposite side of the House. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael came into power on a narrative of fairness and support for young people, and access to education, but instead we got the Minister touting that student fees will rise in September. From the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, and the Ministers for public expenditure and Finance, we have heard a level of verbal gymnastics that was simply staggering when they try to avoid the question of €2,000 or €3,000. That €1,000 increase in a single year is not just a broken promise; it is another betrayal from this say-one-thing-do-another Government.

Students are squeezed from every side. While rents are skyrocketing, the Government refuses students basic protection from market-rate rent hikes. There are no solutions and there is no urgency, just the utter inability to grasp the stark reality for students. While the Government talks about opportunity, its policies shut the door to young people. It had a choice to stand with students or to abandon them and it has chosen to do the latter.

Students demand more. They demand fairness and Sinn Féin stands with them in those demands. We would introduce a cost-of-living package, cancel the €1,000 fee hike and reduce fees by another €500 so that this September, the maximum fee would be €1,500 instead of €3,000. We would also permanently abolish student fees within two years. Education is not a luxury but a right. If Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will not deliver on that right, they can be guaranteed these railroading students will do when the next Government comes in. The future belongs to our youth and it is time this Government stopped mortgaging it.

8:25 am

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein)
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For a couple of days I really could not get my head around what the Government was at in relation to this. Was it some sort of internal politics between Departments, trying to bounce somebody into making an announcement? Was it sheer incompetence? I could not understand it. Why would the Government just walk into a problem that had not been on the horizon? Why would it create this stress and worry for parents? Then I remembered an article from a couple of weeks that I saw in the Irish Independent in which a Minister was quoted, anonymously, as saying that the budget would recognise that there is no longer a cost-of-living crisis and I thought, that is it, that explains it. That is fundamentally the issue here. There are Cabinet Ministers, I do not know who exactly, who think the cost-of-living crisis is over.

For the avoidance of any doubt, the cost-of-living crisis is far from over. It is far from over for the students in the Gallery. It is far from over for parents of students who are trying to figure things out. This is a huge decision for people, for parents trying to budget and for a lot of students who are trying to meet these costs themselves. Some are working one or two jobs trying to make sure they can pay the registration fee. This will decide whether some people have the chance to go to third level or not.

We talk about the cost-of-living crisis and to some extent it is about supermarket prices and so on but it is also about the fact that this is a State that is constantly asking people to pay twice. They pay first in their taxes and then they pay for third level, for their GP, for accident and emergency visits, for their prescriptions and for their voluntary contributions. The policy of this Government and the governments that went before it is to constantly ask people to pay twice and that is a big part of the cost-of-living crisis.

The Taoiseach talked earlier about the people who are being left behind. There are people who will, on foot of this decision, potentially be left behind. They were hoping to go to third level, to a university or a technological university, but they will not be able to now. The Government needs to reverse this decision because people are relying on it.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I commend the students who gathered outside the gates this evening and the students who are here this evening, including the new student union representatives, for pushing back against this desperate situation. Parents and students need to know how much they will be paying in nine weeks time. They need to know this now. People have to budget. Members of this Government do not seem to get this but my constituents do. Ger in east Mayo has twin daughters. She says that she cannot choose between her twins, who are both young talented women. What a position for parents to be in, having to choose between their children. Then there is Joe who in his third year of global commerce at the University of Galway. He says that students were promised by Simon Harris that there could potentially be plans to abolish student fees in the programme for Government. That is what was promised but it looks like that promise is now with the others in the pre-election commitment dustbin. Nicola in south Mayo also wrote to me explaining that although a single parent with two children, one of whom is autistic, because she is a full-time nurse in Mayo University Hospital she does not receive any kind of social welfare. She is fearful that her child benefit and maintenance payments will both stop in August, just when her youngest, results pending, hopes to be heading off to college. All of these are hard-working people, contributing to society in a range of ways.

Another cohort of students I want to talk about today are the children of internationally recruited healthcare workers. I spoke to one today at the INMO conference. Her child came here to Ireland to live and she has to pay international fees of up to €19,000 per year. That is totally wrong.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Whether it is student fees or protection for student renters, the Government continues to sow uncertainty and punish young people. We should be breaking down barriers to higher education and apprenticeships, not erecting them. Worse still, while this Government is obsessed with leaks to the media and innuendo, as we heard earlier, young people and their families have no idea where they stand in relation to fees. This chaotic approach does nothing except sow fear and doubt as families struggle to cope with the spiralling cost of living. CAO change-of-mind applications closed just one week ago. Students have locked in their choices and are now waiting for their leaving certificate results. They do not deserve the added worry of how much their fees will be. The Government is playing political games with young people's futures.

Dangling a reduction in student fees as a temporary relief measure is the entirely wrong approach in any case. I believe in abolishing fees. There must be a phased, permanent reduction in student contribution fees over a short number of years until we finally eliminate this relic of the austerity era. Young people and their families should be able to know there is a reliable timeframe for the reduction of fees and exactly how much they will be each September. This has been Sinn Féin policy since those who currently sit on the Government benches started ramping up student fees in the first place. I am sure some in the Government would not agree with this policy. After all, there is a Government commitment to "ease the financial burden" on students and families at the start of each academic year. The Government going back on its word is hardly new but unfortunately it is families once again who will pay the price. Let us see action, not misdirection, on this commitment.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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For many students, this €1,000 hike is not just a number on a page. It is the difference between accepting a college place and not; between staying in education and dropping out; between progress and paralysis. It is not about affordability alone. It is also about credibility and trust and the repeated failure of the Government to live up its own words. The 2020 and 2025 programmes for Government made clear promises to reduce fees, reform SUSI and invest properly in third level education. Fine Gael's own manifesto pledged to phase out fees entirely but instead of progress, we have now witnessed what looks like a complete roll back and a roll over on top of students. Instead of consultation there has been silence. The €1,000 reduction introduced in budget 2023 was presented as a meaningful step forward but it was temporary. It was not structural and now even that short-term relief has been taken away at a time when rents are soaring, groceries are hitting new highs and thousands of students are still waiting for basic SUSI grant reform.

The Minister says to students that the €1,000 reduction was a cost-of-living measure. I invite the Minister, when he makes his remarks, to look up at the students in the Public Gallery and ask them if their or their parents' cost-of-living crisis is over. He should ask these young people and their families if they can wait for months on end to find out what fees they will be paying next semester. They cannot wait. People are on low incomes. The working poor are a growing number under this Government. They cannot wait while the Government dithers. It is unfair. The cost-of-living crisis is very real. It is felt by the people in the Gallery and the people outside. Just because the Minister does not feel it or see it does not mean that it is not real. I invite the Minister to address his remarks to the people in the Gallery.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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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.

8:35 am

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Nobody used those words.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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It fails to see its real role in our society and our economy. At its heart, my Department is a services Ministry, but it is also much more. It is an economic Ministry and an enabler of everything we want to do. The challenges we are facing, including global trade uncertainty, digital disruption, AI, the green transition and climate change, all demand we lead with the talent, science and skills my Department supports and nurtures. It is here. It is latent in our people. That talent is our greatest national asset and my job is to nurture it and enable it to flourish. The Government is built around that core philosophy and that forward-looking thinking. It is grounded in a belief that education is transformative in two key ways. The first is as a ladder of opportunity for individuals and their families and the second is as the engine of innovation that drives our economy forward. Our commitments on higher education and student supports in the programme for Government and elsewhere reflect the best of those values. That is why I am committed to ensuring our research and education systems are properly resourced so that they can continue to build the knowledge and capabilities that underpin that success and that prosperity. It is also why I fully intend to deliver on the programme for Government commitment to reduce the student contribution fee over the lifetime of this Government.

I will address some of the issues posed by the motion and the events of recent days. Perhaps I am unusual, but I believe in a straight answer to a straight question and that honesty is the best policy.

(Interruptions).

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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We can laugh all we like but let us think about how this came about.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Will it be €2,000 or €3,000? There is a question. Will the Minister give us a straight answer?

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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We have a duty to be upfront and honest with citizens and to deal in good faith.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Will it be €2,000 or €3,000? It is a straight question.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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The Minister did not interrupt you, Deputy.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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He invited the question.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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We do not gain anything from avoiding those questions. Whether in a radio interview or anywhere else, I have always been straight with people. This is not a policy decision. Deputy O'Reilly can wave her fingers all she likes.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Is it €2,000 or €3,000?

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Ceann Comhairle, I am trying to speak. I did not interrupt you, Deputy O'Reilly. This is not a policy decision or a move to reallocate moneys. It is not a decision of any kind. It is not a decision at all.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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It is a policy decision.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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What was the Minister doing on the radio?

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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This is a straight and sincere statement of budgetary challenges as we approach this year's budget. That is what it is, pure and simple.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Not having a cost-of-living package is a policy decision.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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The once-off measures, which were welcome-----

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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The cost-of-living crisis is over.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Deputies, give the Minister the courtesy of listening.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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The once-off measures were welcome and were needed at the time but they were temporary in nature. I want to move the system onto permanent measures that are sustainable, costed, fair, equitable and baked into the system for evermore. That will be of far greater benefit to families, students and everybody in the system in the long run. Along with my colleagues across both parties and the Independents, I am fully committed to our programme for Government commitments. We will make progress in the coming college year but we have to be straight with people. To govern is to choose. Every decision comes with trade-offs. We have to be honest with people. Unlike the Opposition, I will not pretend every single need can be met in a single budget. The danger of calling for everything for everyone is that you risk standing for nothing at all. People know that nothing is free and that choices have to be made. They know the budget is the right place to make those choices.

Of course, it is important that we listen to students and parents who are struggling with the cost of education and who need real support in the coming college year. I have been hearing those voices ever since my appointment. I have been hearing them in the last number of weeks and months and ever since the day I took office. I have met with the USI and with students' unions and I look forward to meeting with more of them in the weeks and months ahead. Over the summer months, I will continue the consultation I started with an event in Croke Park in April that brought together all the key stakeholders, including the students' unions. I have listened to what was said as regards the measures that would be most impactful and most helpful to the system. This means putting in place policies that are sustainable and that will have an enduring impact rather than making promises on the fly.

We need to help students and parents with costs but we need to do it in a costed and sustainable way. That is why our major financial decisions are made through the annual budget process, where choices are weighed up and made in the best interests of our State. That is exactly how any approach to student fees has been taken over the past several years. Decisions are made in the annual budget and benefit students for the coming academic year. Sinn Féin knows that because it brought forward this same motion at the exact same point two years ago. At this point in the calendar in 2023, it brought forward this same motion, saying there was uncertainty. At the time, the Minister, Deputy Harris, replied and said what I am going to say now, which is that this will be dealt with in the budget cycle. That is the way it is always done. The point scoring and politics in this motion are disappointing because these kinds of on-the-fly, universal, uncosted, unfunded measures that promise something for everybody and one for everyone in the audience all add up eventually and it is at someone else's expense. We need to be clear about where we are going with this and we need to look to the budget to advance that.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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We would love a bit of clarity in the Minister's next two minutes. Nobody has got any clarity.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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The Deputy will have his speaking time.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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I was just excited because I thought the Minister was going to give us clarity.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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I understand. Allow the Minister to finish.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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He also said he likes to give a straight answer to a straight question. We are all sitting here riveted. We will get a straight answer to a straight question any minute now.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I want to get away from the negativity and move towards the goal of a higher education system that achieves both excellence and access. Budget 2026 will move us a step forward towards that and build on the progress to date. Rather than scaremongering and whipping up anxiety, we should be clear with people about the supports that already exist. Households with incomes up to €115,000 will benefit from fee grants and supports this September. That is before we do anything else. That is already in the budget today. The SUSI application deadline is this Thursday, 10 July. There are multiple measures already in the system. Households with incomes of up to €115,000 are already eligible for supports. That may not be widely known but it is an historic high. It is the highest it has ever been. I have taken on board all of the points that have been made in this debate and more.

I have talked about Sinn Féin hypocrisy. I have asked questions about its alternative budget but I have not got any answers yet, straight or otherwise. It got its numbers wrong in its budget submission on this measure last year.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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No, we did not.

Deputy James Lawless:

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Nobody used those words.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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(Interruptions).

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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We can laugh all we like but let us think about how this came about.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Will it be €2,000 or €3,000? There is a question. Will the Minister give us a straight answer?

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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We have a duty to be upfront and honest with citizens and to deal in good faith.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Will it be €2,000 or €3,000? It is a straight question.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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The Minister did not interrupt you, Deputy.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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He invited the question.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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Is it €2,000 or €3,000?

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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It is a policy decision.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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What was the Minister doing on the radio?

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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This is a straight and sincere statement of budgetary challenges as we approach this year's budget. That is what it is, pure and simple.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Not having a cost-of-living package is a policy decision.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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The once-off measures, which were welcome-----

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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The cost-of-living crisis is over.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Deputies, give the Minister the courtesy of listening.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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We would love a bit of clarity in the Minister's next two minutes. Nobody has got any clarity.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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The Deputy will have his speaking time.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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I was just excited because I thought the Minister was going to give us clarity.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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I understand. Allow the Minister to finish.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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He also said he likes to give a straight answer to a straight question. We are all sitting here riveted. We will get a straight answer to a straight question any minute now.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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No, we did not.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Sinn Féin costed it at €65 million when it is actually about €135 million.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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That is because two thirds of the year were gone.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I heard Deputy Seán Crowe, who I have great time and respect for, talk about how it is a core policy of Sinn Féin to abolish fees. Someone needs to tell the Northern Ireland Executive that because fees are €5,600 across the Border and there was recently talk about bumping them up. That kind of partitionism would make a unionist blush. People see through that kind of rhetoric. They see where that leads us. Let us not speak out of both sides of our mouth. Let us speak truth and tell people that we will do our very best for them in the budget process. We will fulfil our programme for Government commitments, reduce the cost of education, reduce the student contribution fee, target resources at the people who need them and keep our education system at the standard it has always been at. Let me again be crystal clear: no decisions have been made yet. There is a financial framework that we all engage in as we go into the budget. That is exactly what we are doing now. The voices of everybody in this Chamber matter. I will reiterate my commitments and reaffirm my belief in honesty in public debate. Our education system is the foundation of a thriving economy and a flourishing society. It deserves better than political point scoring and hollow promises. Some parties want to make noise-----

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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The Government promised this during the election and in the programme for Government. What is the Minister talking about? It is written in his own programme for Government.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I have reiterated-----

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Now it is "We will do our best."

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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The Minister's time is up.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I have reiterated my commitment to the programme for Government. Some parties want to make noise; I want to make progress.

Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister clearly does not know how budgets work. I have only two minutes of speaking time so I will not be able to go through it now but I have no problem sitting down with him at some other time to go through exactly how budgets work. Budgets are about political choices. The Minister says it is a policy decision. It is a policy decision the Government said it was going to take.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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It is not a policy decision. That is what I am saying.

Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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In the run-up to the general election, the Government parties made all of these promises about how they were going to get rid of student fees. The Tánaiste even said in November that he would return to genuinely free fees and that this would be done over the lifetime of the next Government if he was returned to power. What do we have instead? The first thing we hear is that promise being reneged upon.

The Minister also said that he has spent his time listening to all of the students who are here, that he has listened to the students' unions and that he will continue to engage with students' unions over the course of the summer. Yet, when he talked about the challenges we face as a State, he did not mention students, their families or their financial hardship once. The Minister says he wants to focus on access to education. He should see one thing. When he prices people out of access to third level education, he is limiting their access. I will give him a bit of a history lesson. I started university in 2008. In 2008, there was a massive students' movement that knew free education was going to be absolutely and utterly demolished by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. We held protests in NUI Galway and on the streets of Dublin because we knew exactly what they were planning to do. They are proving us right again and again. I raised this with the Minister's two predecessors on numerous occasions. I told them they were only going to do it as a once-off, that they did not care and that they were not going to do it for the long term. The Minister has just proven he will continue doing exactly that. We do not need to hear his bluff and bluster. He should just do it, deal with the motion tonight and cut fees.

8:45 am

Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
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I too welcome the students to the Dáil. I listened to the Minister's speech and, like students up and down the country, I am none the wiser. Students have been left under serious pressure over the course of the past few weeks and their college term has not even begun yet. They are meant to be enjoying their summer holidays and getting a summer job. While many students and their families are stressing over the summer to try to secure whatever is left of the extortionately priced student accommodation, they now face the prospect of having to come up with an extra €1,000. Today, I spoke to Maeve Farrell, who is here, the newly elected president of Maynooth Students' Union, about the impact this is having on students who will be attending Maynooth University. She told me of the issues students are facing in housing, public transport and mental health, all of which need to be addressed urgently. On top of that, they now face the uncertainty of whether they will be charged €2,000 or €3,000. We still do not know. Students need that certainty now and it is sorely lacking from this Government. Families are already at their wits' end with the cost-of-living crisis that is affecting their pockets. They are now potentially being asked to find an extra €1,000 come September. This will impact on more than 15,000 students in Maynooth this year. For many, it will decide whether they can afford to go to college. It is completely unacceptable. The programme for Government promised fair and equal access to further and higher education, regardless of socioeconomic status, to ease the financial burden on students and families at the start of each academic year. Not only did this Government completely mislead students before the election about housing figures and student accommodation, but it is now continuing to mislead them after the election.

As for the Minister's partners in the Government, we could not turn on the radio last week without hearing a Fine Gael backbencher pretending that they care about student fees. Where are they tonight? They are certainly not here or willing to go on the Dáil record. This is very much a creation of their one-off cost-of-living measures. I would like to say, "We see you, Fine Gael", but I clearly cannot.

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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For the past number of weeks or months we have had Ministers saying they will not do a cost-of-living package. They have evaded the question every time they have been asked. When we heard about the plan from the Government to increase fees by €1,000, the Minister can imagine our shock. It shows exactly how out of touch the Government can be, because there is a cost-of-living crisis. I do not have to tell the Minister that. I spoke to many of the students outside the door earlier today, but I speak to them all the time. I represent Limerick city, which is a student city. We have a huge number of third level institutions, the Technological University of the Shannon, TUS, the University of Limerick, the art college, Mary Immaculate and others. They are fantastic. Lots of students come to Limerick and they are very welcome. They contribute greatly to our city. However, people are struggling, and I do not think the Minister appreciates how much they are struggling. For instance, I was in Dunnes Stores yesterday and the woman on the checkout told me that every single week she notices the cost of living and the prices people are paying. Students pay these prices as well. They are going up and up, and nothing is coming down. As I have said, Ministers over the past number of weeks and months have not told us they will be giving a cost-of-living package in the budget. The first we heard about was a €1,000 fee increase. Most people do not have such an amount of money, as some of my colleagues have said. Most families will have budgeted for the year ahead and for student accommodation already. With student fees, costs and the cost of living more generally, some people just cannot afford anything additional to that. Families will have done their budgets already. They might have multiples of students going to college. The fact they have no certainty coming this close to the return of the academic year is a disgrace and the Minister needs to sort it out.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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Students were protesting outside the gates earlier demanding answers. Their families are demanding answers. Students are young people trying to enjoy their summer holidays after finishing the leaving certificate and beginning college. Families across Ireland who are sending youngsters back to college and those who may be in their final year and looking to knuckle down to get their degree are demanding answers. They are getting none. They want to know one simple thing: will it be €2,000 or €3,000 they have to pay come September? This Government is refusing to give certainty. We saw Minister after Minister and the Tánaiste last week, and the Taoiseach today, refusing to answer that question. It is a poor showing when a Government cannot even manage a multiple-choice question. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael seem hellbent on waffling their way out of this and blaming others for their own indecision. They are blaming everyone else for the housing, everyone else for the cost of living, but people in this country are seeing through it. Fianna Fáil's argument that this only affects wealthy parents is nonsense. It is classic deflection. Over the past few days, I have heard from parents who are just above the SUSI thresholds, worried about funding this increase for two or three students in their own houses, from student nurses who cannot take on part-time work to make up the difference and from students who are already covering the cost of accommodation come September.

Sinn Féin's motion tonight is simple. Give students and families a break, cancel the €1,000 hike, cut the fees and move to permanently abolish student fees. To every student watching here in the Gallery, we see your struggle, we stand with you and we will fight for you. Tá sé thar am an freagra seo a leanas a thabhairt do na mic léinn taobh amuigh atá ag ágóidíocht: táimid libh, agus tiocfaidh bhur lá.

Johnny Mythen (Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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The original reduction of student fees was introduced in 2022. The reason the Government did that was to alleviate the cost of living, which was the right thing to do. To go on that premise and bring it to its logical conclusion, the cost of living today has now increased by at least another third since then. According to Barnardos, one third of parents have gone into arrears on energy bills alone. We see reports in the media that the Government is intent on scrapping the cost-of-living supports in the upcoming budget. Now, we have a Minister saying that student fees could reach €3,000, an increase of €1,000. We then have the housing Minister effectively giving landlords the go-ahead to raise student rents once they sign a new release, which the majority do, because a new batch of students are coming into first year, others are graduating and leaving their accommodation and others are moving to different colleges. To up student fees by €1,000 in 2025, in what is effectively an even bigger cost-of-living crisis, is unjustifiable. One of the many students who has written to me stated:

With no cost-of-living package in sight for the next budget despite our spending power not matching the cost of living at all, with increased rents as the current Government continues to cosy up to landlords and private developers, finally what now feels like a slap in the face with the prospect of an increased student fee.

These students will be the future foundation of our nation. They should be looked after. A cost-of-living package should be introduced, and the scheduled €1,000 fee hike must be scrapped, with a further reduction of €500, reducing the maximum fee to €1,500. That is what Sinn Féin will do. That is what should be done.

Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)
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I welcome the motion brought forward by Sinn Féin. I begin my own contribution by welcoming all the students in the Gallery, who came out in force this evening against this €1,000 increase in the student fees. I put on the record that I have great respect for the Minister, but I absolutely think this is an argument and a fight that the Government is losing. I say that because the Minister made an assertion in his contribution that Opposition parties are using education as a political football.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Not all the parties.

Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)
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He made that assertion.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Some more than others.

Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)
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I appreciate that, and I would appreciate if that was taken back because he made that assertion about people like me. I am not using this as a political football. This is genuine. I am the youngest Member in this House. I came out of college and the only reason I went to college was that I had access to a SUSI grant, but 80% of people across the country do not have that same access to a full grant. It is in the Minister's amendment.

I would not have been able to achieve third level education if it was not for the support of the State. The support is not being afforded to these students that was given to students for the past two years.

This is also a matter for the Tánaiste, who waved this in our faces as a temporary cost-of-living measure. His party comes out then and criticises its brother party in government on the decision that is being made. The decision made in the programme for Government when the Minister sat down with party colleagues and Fine Gael colleagues was that we would continue to reduce the student contribution fee every year over this Dáil term. When I saw that, I accepted it and I am sure students across the country accepted it. When you are at home with your parents or guardians and waiting for a grant to be approved, you are again reminded of your place in this society. You realise how little valued you are by this State if you have to rely on a grant to go to college. That is not acceptable. Third level and further education should be affordable to all.

I listened with great interest to the Taoiseach clapping himself and his party on the back for what they have done. I do not doubt or question the good things done in education over the years, but what about these students? What is being done for them? There were great things done in the past. Niamh Bhreathnach, the 1990s Labour Party Minister, gave great opportunities to students. I do not doubt for a minute the Minister's party has done good things. I accept and appreciate that, but what about these students and families? These families do not know whether they will have access to further education.

The Minister spoke of the financial framework. Does that mean that, when he looks at the framework, he will reduce student contribution fees? I respect the budgetary process. In that budgetary process and that financial framework, will the Minister reduce student fees? That is the ultimate question to be answered. Another simple question that needs to be answered is whether in September these students and their families will have to pay €2,000 or €3,000. That is a simple and fair question that has been asked on numerous occasions in the nine days since the announcement was made.

In 2020, the Minister's party leader said he was conscious of the additional cost of living away from home in a city or town and that that cost had been quite significant in the preceding years. That was a comment Micheál Martin made in 2020. Does he believe these additional costs are gone? Purpose-built student accommodation is at 18% in my county of Cork. Friends of mine are paying €700, €800 or €900 per month to rent a damp, mouldy room in Cork with no light or window. That is what they are living in and we do not seem to be progressing. The Minister's leader said he was conscious of the additional cost in 2020. Is he conscious of the costs now? There are the costs of running a car, of homes and of renting in the city or town you are studying in. We were talking today about how much the cost of groceries is going up. This is an additional economic barrier being placed on what we consider the great leveller. We spoke about the great leveller in this Chamber not so long ago.

During the general election, the Tánaiste said third level education fees would need to be phased out in the coming years to allow for their total abolition; mere months later we hear reports of plans to increase these fees. This not only betrays the trust of students and their families but also undermines the principle of accessible education for all. He created an Instagram story, saying he would let us in on the little secret that he would abolish third level education fees over the course of the next Government. It was in the programme for Government so he obviously got it through negotiations.

I am standing here after being outside and listening to the stories of students who came up to me and party members. I would not go to a protest for the sake of going to a protest. I am not that kind of person but I would go to a protest about issues of serious concern to the people sitting in the Gallery. It is disappointing that an amendment is being tabled. We need to know what students and their families will be paying. I am sure the Minister and his colleagues in government are getting emails about it. Will they be paying €3,000 or €2,000? I respect the budgetary process but I, like the students in the Gallery, do not know what they will be paying in September.

8:55 am

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Sometimes I wonder what this country has against young people and, in turn, what this Government has against young people. Young people always pay the price: they paid the price for the sins of the crash, for the banks and for the property developers.

This whole calamity has been really badly handled. The Minister opened a can of worms on the radio the other week and unleased a political football that has, unfortunately, led to students, many of whom join us in the Gallery, being kicked around the place by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Many students are being gouged. We have students on Cork Street in this city paying €19,000 per year for purpose-built private student accommodation. The bottle works student accommodation in Cork costs €18,000 per year. The panic and stress caused by the way this has been handled has been terrible. When the Minister let the genie out of the bottle, he should have grabbed it by the neck and put it straight back in.

We know - the Minister alluded to it and the Taoiseach said it earlier - that this country has been transformed by the power of education. The Minister's party, Fianna Fáil, has a good legacy when it comes to education but that was then and this is now. The Minister has an opportunity to have his Donogh O'Malley moment and move, as committed to in the programme for Government, to get rid of college fees. That starts to recommitting to €2,000 for next year and phasing it out on an annual basis from the following year. We have had report after report tell us about the hardship for students. One in five students said they are skipping meals to be able to afford to live.

In my city of Limerick, there are 18,000 students in UL. The university only owns 2,900 beds. The university purchased properties for twice the market rate and came before the Committee of Public Accounts last year with little or no consequence. We have students commuting from south Kerry and all the way down the west coast to Limerick. People are staying in hotels. We have even had people sleeping in cars. I live near UL and get a letter through my door twice a year pleading with me to rent a room to some poor student.

In the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act that was passed last week, the stuff around security of tenure was good but the stuff allowing landlords to reset rents to market rates will disproportionately screw students. This often feels like ideological warfare against the youth of this country.

Time and again I have been in this House and listened to the Taoiseach talk about the need to fund things properly.

The fact of the matter is politics is about choices. We would prioritise bringing down the student contribution over additional paltry tax cuts because we are fiscally responsible and we always have been. I urge the Minister to please put this all to bed because the CAO is closing very soon and students want, need and are begging the Government for certainty as to what they will pay when they go to university in September.

9:05 am

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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Gabhaim buíochas le Sinn Féin as an rún seo a thabhairt. For the previous nine days or so, chaos and confusion has reigned. It has been an omnishambles of a will they, will they not? There have been three different proposals as to how putting the student contribution fee up by €1,000 might look. Fees will go up by €1,000, followed by discussions about a two-tiered model and there was then support for families with multiple children in third level. All the while, families are grappling with the thoughts of whether they will be able to afford to send their children to third level in the autumn. Students are just finishing the leaving certificate, enjoying some well-earned relaxation and are still talking about that fear of whether they will be able to accept the course they really want.

I know the Minister has said nothing has been decided yet. I know when we were on the radio last week he said that he does not want any student not included in education because there is a financial problem.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Absolutely.

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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That is very welcome but words are one thing. We need action. I did not come in here to lecture the Minister, although I was a lecturer in DCU and as was my educational role previously, I will set some things out. Sometimes in this House, we forget what the rights of young people are. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights explicitly states that everyone has the right to education and that education is crucial for the realisation of human rights, such as the right to participate in society, the right to work and the right to work. Education empowers individuals, helping them to develop their skills and knowledge, and enables them to reach their full potential. Education is a powerful tool for lifting people out of poverty and promoting social equality and gender equality.

Quality education is essential for achieving sustainable development goals and building peaceful, just and inclusive societies. In order for the right to education to be seen, education systems must be available to all with adequate infrastructure, resources and trained teachers. Education must be accessible to all, without discrimination based on gender, race, religion, socioeconomic status and other factors. Education provided must be relevant, culturally appropriate and of good quality. It must be flexible and able to adapt to the changing needs of individuals and society. I am calling that out just to say it again. We have signed up to this. We must follow this. We must do everything we can to make sure that everybody in this country who wants to have a third level education can get one. It has been mentioned previously that when it came to second level education being made free, people were not happy about it then. There was a snobbery around it and it is the same for third level now. That is our thing in 2025. There is snobbery around this or there is an inability or unwillingness to do it. We can do it and we should do it.

In an education setting, we often highlight that John Dewey said: “Education is a social process; education is growth; education is not preparation for life but is life itself.” If we take those words and we look at why we are educating people, it is not to send them into industry or do all of those things. It is great if that is a by-product of that but students who are sitting here in this Gallery, sitting at home and working away doing whatever they are doing need to be afforded the ability to enhance their learning and love of learning. You might call me a bit romantic in thinking that our education system should function on the fact we want to learn for the love of learning, we want to enhance ourselves and our society and we want to have the time to explore and the freedom to develop thoughts, hypotheses and time to create and innovate. However, I am afraid the students I meet are not able to do that because they are so busy working and worrying about the fact they cannot afford accommodation, travel and groceries.

Students pay a contribution fee that far exceeds other countries. In Germany, that fee is €300 to €700 per year. In the Nordic countries, tuition is free. There is no student contribution either. Everybody raves about Finland. We want that here. We should copy the things that are going well in other countries and replicate them. We should not look to other models where we have a neoliberal - I do not really like that term - way of looking at education. That is not the model we should follow. The cost of transport for students in Ireland is about €100 per month. For students in Germany, many public universities give a semester pass of between €150 and €350 that covers all the local buses, trams and whatever you are having yourself. Public transport in Finland is €55 to €70 a month. As was mentioned previously, accommodation in my constituency of Dublin South Central is €1,200 a month. If you are in Berlin, it is €300 to €400. The rents are astronomical here in comparison to other countries.

Then there are groceries. The fact is 70% of people in Ireland are either extremely or very concerned about the cost of groceries. This includes students. They have to eat as well. They have their households as well. They are not just an extension of their parents and their parents do not do their shopping for them and say, "There you go [son or daughter], off you go." They may not be living in the same county as their parents. We really need to take into consideration that whatever affects us, affects students but it affects them even more because they do not have savings, permanent jobs or permanent contracts and all those things. They are there to study; they are not there to work. Work comes later.

Families are spending approximately €3,000 more annually than they were in 2021 on groceries. Grocery prices have increased by 40%. When this affect students, it is another thing they need to worry about. There is then the number of young people and children who are living in consistent poverty. There were 100,000 of them in 2024. According to the Children's Rights Alliance CEO, the cumulative impact of continued rising costs has created a landslide effect for low-income families meaning that ensuring basic necessities, such as nutritious food or a warm home, has become increasingly difficult. Today, we read a report from Barnardos stating that parents have gone without meals or reduced the size of their meals so they can feed their own children, as any parent would do if they were faced with that absolutely horrific situation, and 12% of respondents said they use a food bank. If students are asked, that percentage is probably higher. I do not know what families can do if they are facing those sort of things. How can they even think about third level? I know there is a SUSI grant but not everybody meets the grant eligibility. People fall through the cracks and we need to make sure we capture them. Raising fees by €1,000 will not help that in any way.

I want to address the payment in instalments proposal. It is fine if people have money. There are two flashpoints for families who are budgeting; September and January. September follows the summer holidays, which is a really expensive time for families. In January, there have been the winter festivities and all that comes with that. It is also the coldest part of the year so the heating will be on, if people can afford it. Knowing whether they will pay that money or not makes a huge impact on families. We need to be really careful that saying things like we can pay by instalment does not suit everybody. That instalment in September will be difficult enough. In January, that instalment will be almost impossible for many families. We need to be really careful.

Finally, we need to look at the cost of third level institutes and the funding they get. It is not the responsibility of third level students to fund our universities. That is the job of the Government. That is why we pay taxes. It is a public service we need to fund and we need to look at the fact that Finland spends 1.6% of its GDP, Germany spends 1.2% of its GDP and we spend 0.9% of our GDP on tertiary education. We need to address that. There is an issue that has not been discussed here with regard to third level education but the students present and the students around the country are not the ones who need to fund that. It is a public good we need to fund and it needs to be funded centrally.

Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)
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The Minister has got this badly wrong. He has created huge levels of uncertainty and huge levels of stress for students, parents and families right across the country. The students of Ireland deserve better. They deserve clarity. Fees in this country are already far too high. Students are paying too much money to access what is a human right: basic education at third level. A recent report from the European Commission found that Ireland has the third highest university fees in the European Union when the maximum annual cost is considered. However, Ireland ranks highest on average rates of tuition paid annually. We are outliers in Europe in the fees people are paying. A total of 11 countries in Europe charge no fees at undergraduate level, with 14 more countries charging students less than €1,000 per year. Our fees here are already far too high. Students are paying far too much to access undergraduate education.

This is on top of findings from the OECD that indicate we do not invest enough in our education system. How can we expect students to continue to pay the price when the Government invests so little in their futures?

Increases in fees comprise a huge barrier to access to education that is preventing people from attaining their educational goals. We also have to consider that it is not just student fees that are increasing. Students are also facing cost increases across the board, including in groceries, accommodation and transport. We have seen consistent rises in the costs faced by students. In 2024, it was estimated that the average cost of going to college was €15,500 per year. It was even higher in Dublin, at €19,500. In my county, Cork, there was an increase of €836 between 2023 and 2024. Year-on-year, students face higher costs of living and, on top of those, potentially even higher fees. This is unsustainable and unacceptable.

We have also seen rises in grocery prices. This is an issue that the Social Democrats have been highlighting. There has been a 40% increase in grocery prices in four years. Students and their families are under huge financial pressure. We need to see a reduction in fees over the lifetime of the Government and their elimination. These costs are not temporary; they are ongoing. They represent consistent rises in the cost of living. The Minister can bring down the costs for students by reducing student fees year after year.

I used to work for a students' union. I commend the student union officers who are here today and protesting outside. I used to work for UCC Students' Union as a welfare officer and I have seen at first-hand the hardship students face. I encountered students who were living in their cars, students who were sleeping under hedges on campus and students with no relationship with their families who were still forced to pay high fees. We are doing a huge disservice to students by linking their requirement to pay fees to their parents' incomes because some of them have no relationship with their families. The Minister must factor that in.

We need to provide better access to education and give people opportunities and a path so that they can achieve what they want in life. That starts with the Government creating a way forward for them, investing in them, reducing student fees, increasing grants and supports, cherishing students and young people and providing them with the supports they need to have fulfilling lives in this country. At the moment, far too many of them have no hope of staying here because of rising fees, the rising cost of living and poor access to housing. They deserve better. Students in this country deserve a brighter future here.

9:15 am

Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)
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The student fees issue shows how out of touch the Government is and how unfair it is to students and parents alike. Third level education should and must be available and affordable to all. Students and their parents have to plan financially for the coming academic year and are surely entitled to know the costs involved. The failure of the Taoiseach, Tánaiste, Ministers for Finance, public expenditure and reform, further and higher education, who is present, and many other Ministers to refuse to answer the question on whether the fee will rise from €2,000 to €3,000 for the coming year is an insult to parents and students.

This, of course, is not solely an issue of fees. The background is one of significantly increased rents and the significantly increased cost of living. The new rent regime introduced recently by the Minister throws students under the bus. Students have now no rent protection whatsoever. The Minister for housing is allowing landlords to reset rents to market rates between tenancies. Of course, most students rent for only nine months of the year. The Minister says it is not possible to provide a specific rent protection for students. I am not sure that is the case. We have to remember that private rents for students in the past five years have increased by 92%.

The cost of living is also in the background. Other speakers have gone through that. Grocery prices are up three times the level of inflation and insurance and transport costs are up. Students and parents are already under severe pressure. Nowadays, most students work at weekends and over holidays to try to make ends meet. Students from rural areas like my constituency are under even more pressure. They may not have a local third level institution or a range of courses may not be available, so they are forced to travel to college daily or rent at exorbitant rates in far-off cities. If a parent has two or three children in college, it is more serious.

Today's Barnardos report on the cost-of-living impact highlights the difficulties that families face. Let me refer to a few points: one in five families has cut back or gone without heating or electricity in the past 12 months, 40% of parents have skipped meals or reduced portions to ensure their children would have enough to eat, and 12% are using food banks. The Minister should do the right thing – abolish fees. The money is available, this being a very rich country. He should abolish fees now.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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We are now on day nine of this fiasco. Time and again last week and even this afternoon in the Dáil, the mantra “the normal budgetary process” has been trotted out by the Taoiseach, Tánaiste, and the Ministers for Finance, public expenditure and further and higher education. Yes, there is a normal budgetary process but we are far outside that process on the single issue of what the student contribution will be next year. The blame for that lies with the Minister, Deputy Lawless. Nobody made him drop his bombshell last Sunday week. He made a decision on intervening and on making his bold statement. That was when he should have deployed the phrase "the normal budgetary process", not cause the confusion of the past nine days.

The blame does not lie with him alone. The Tánaiste's voicemail that was widely distributed among journalists certainly did not help. At a time when we see Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael bickering with each other, we see the impact on students and their parents and the hardship they are facing and suffering all over the country. The Minister's coalition is leaking and creaking, and students and parents are suffering.

So, what do we do now? I have been in the Minister's position of trying to negotiate a budget and know it is difficult and a huge challenge and that one has to fence off the various demands over the course of a year, particularly as one gets closer to the budgetary process. However, the Government, including the Minister, owes students certainty on this issue. The right thing to do is to step beyond the mantra "the normal budgetary process" and tell students what they will owe this September. This has been an unforced error by the Government and it is right to fix it now. The Government, including the Minister, owes students an apology. I have no doubt that, like me, he is getting emails from students and particularly from parents – parents for whom the student contribution is a struggle but one they make every year because they know the importance of education and want to support their sons and daughters in the next stage of their lives. Those parents will still make it even if it is €1,000 or €500 extra, or whatever the figure is, but it will mean an extra sacrifice in the weeks and months to come. They are entitled to know what that actual cost will be.

This has been a messy episode but it is okay to recognise that and that there has been an error. However, importantly, it is right and proper to correct the error. That error can be corrected tonight in this Chamber by the Minister or his colleague in the wrap-up speech through a clear statement as to what students will owe in September of this year. He should please do the right thing.

Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)
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I have attended most of the debates on college fees in the past week and the one thing I found was that nobody got clarity. This is a terribly unfair situation for parents to find themselves in. They are very concerned. There is no point in saying something here that is not true. Every politician, including the Ministers, must surely realise from emails the concerns of parents. In a message I received one morning last week, a west Cork lady informed me that the question of whether her child will go to college is down to whether her car will break down. That is a terrible situation for any government to put a family in. If the car breaks down, the child will not go to college. It is down to that and down to the bare minimum.

It tells me that this Government of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Independents is completely out of touch on the reality of the situation. They had ample opportunity last week and on numerous occasions to put the record right and at least ease the worries of the people.

I welcome all the students who are in the Gallery today. They are fighting for their future here. This Government wants to make sure to wreck their future and put them on a boat or a plane out of this country. That is a sad situation we are facing. If they do jump through the hoops right now, they will get caught on housing or something along the line to make sure the Government destroys their careers. At this present time, 48% of families are cutting back on essentials, including food, heat and electricity. Some 40% of parents went without food or borrowed money to feed children. One in three parents is falling behind in paying bills like energy and rent while 28% do not have enough food for their children. Some 76% of parents say their children's well-being is being harmed by rising costs. It goes on and on. The Government is totally, unbelievably out of touch with reality. If it does not look after the young people, where does it expect this country to go? Does it want them to stay at home from college? Is that the plan? Does it not want to help them going forward? No child in Ireland should go hungry, yet tens of thousands are. These students will be hungry next year because every one of them is at home. I am living with a student myself, Jessica, my partner's daughter, and her friend Isabella. They work during the summer to see if they can pay for the comforts they need. Those comforts are food, not anything else, just the basic, day-to-day foods. The Government is trying to make their lives a misery and make a decision sitting at the table as to whether they can continue in college or not. It is a despicable situation.

9:25 am

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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I thank all the students who are here today and all their families who are encouraging them to go to college. Parents now have to choose. If they have two children to go to college, they may not be able to afford it. Inflation costs at the moment are putting a massive strain on family life for the students and for all families. The Government has not provided adequate accommodation for students to go to college. The colleges do not have the accommodation. They have to try to get accommodation as close as they can to the college if they are lucky. The students now have to rent their accommodation two or three months before they go to college and pay for it now. We are doing it ourselves in our household. We have two payments already made on a house for students, with other parents, because they have no other place to go to college. That is the only way we can get them to college. That is because there is no student accommodation.

On top of this, the Government now wants to put €1,000 back on top of college fees. It is the reverse. It should be taking off another €1,000 and letting them get their education for free. They are the next generation that we want to educate. They have inflation and one in four families is doing without food. Students are working extra hours themselves during the summer and that money is going to pay for accommodation that the Government cannot provide to let them go to third level education. Where is it going to stop? If people work in this country, they are taxed. If they build something for themselves, they are doubly taxed as well on top of it. Now we have students who want an education and their family want them to be educated, which everyone in here seems to have always wanted, and the Government is putting more obstacles in their way. For God's sake, will ye see reality? There is no more left in these families. Every penny they earn, they pay tax and they put food on the table. They pay for the living standard they have. The writing is on the wall and it is telling the Government they are under so much pressure they cannot take any more. Now the Government wants to put the fees back up.

I am the Chair of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight and today we had the Central Bank in. We were talking about the extra money that is in the coffers from the taxpayers of Ireland. The Government will not give back to the students and the families who are actually paying for the taxes in the first place. No wonder you have your heads down over there. You cannot look me in the eye.

Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I can look you in the eye.

Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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Yes we can.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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Look at them in the eye. Why cannot you look at them in the eye?

Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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I am looking at you.

Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)
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Heads down the whole time, looking at your phones when you should be listening to the speeches.

Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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No, we are not. You are a disgrace.

Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The cheek of you.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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This is the first time you stuck your head up since you came in.

Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)
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No respect for the young people up there.

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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Ba mhaith liom seans cúpla focal a rá anocht. I was in the Green Party back in 2009 when everything was cut to shreds. Back then I fought a little bit of a rearguard battle with some of my colleagues to get education cuts reversed and to stop registration fees being increased. That was when stuff was quite expensive. The cost of living rose post Covid and the registration fees were reduced by approximately €1,000. The question we have to discuss tonight is if we are going to leave it until the budget as per this Government statement, or if we are going to talk about it now. I thank my colleagues for allowing this debate because it is important to talk about it now. The cost of living is still high. Students are still faced with so many pressures. We see the impact on mental health because of that. It can cost overall maybe €60,000 for education and a lot of that is borne by the State and the taxpayer over a period. Perhaps there are some ways that contribution has to be paid back at some stage. At the moment I would see that as general taxation. Too many budgets in the past have opted to cut taxes. People say they would rather see investment in services and in our people, rather than cutting taxes, although I acknowledge that people also say we pay too much tax. It cannot be either-or.

Looking at the students in particular, travel costs, rent and accommodation costs if they can actually get it, and the general cost of living and the pressure on their parents, and them having to work, all adds up to the cost of living being too high. It is premature to make any reduction right now.

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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I welcome the students in the Gallery this evening. No doubt some of them would have voted for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael on the premise that those parties told them before the election that they would reduce student fees. Student fees were €2,000 and now the Minister is seeking to increase them to €3,000. That is actually a 50% increase yet the parties opposite went to the people, and told these good people up here, the families across Ireland, that they would reduce their fees. It is totally disrespectful that the Government treats these families with such disregard. It introduced giveaway budgets and, in my constituency, announced things before the election that were already announced, only to take them away just months later.

The 50% increase on student fees comes at a time when rents are skyrocketing, particularly for students. Electricity costs are the highest in Europe, insurance costs among the highest in Europe and fuel costs are also among the highest in Europe. This Government took in €4 billion last year in fuel tax, which is driving up the cost of living. Now it seeks to drive up the cost of living more on these wonderful students. What does the Minister of State say to the families across Mayo, many of whom have to send their students to Dublin, Galway or Cork? These families are already suffering, largely due to this Government, in respect of the housing crisis. I know families and I am sure the students in the Gallery will agree that students are moving out of their accommodation on a Friday and moving back in on a Sunday night or a Monday morning. That is how bad things have gotten. It is the reality of what is happening, particularly in Dublin. It is the only way students from Mayo can afford to live and go to college.

9 o’clock

It is a cynical thing to do, to tell the people of Ireland the Government was going to reduce the fees when the fees were €2,000, and then increase them by 50% weeks after the election. The Minister can do the right thing today and tell the families what his plan is. It is totally wrong that the Tánaiste would come out and ask if people can pay in instalments while the Government sees how it goes. What level of respect is that for students who are hoping to budget and manage their budgets? Students are coming to me wondering if they can afford to go to college this year, and the Government tells them it will see how it goes. I ask the Minister to do the right thing and tell families throughout Ireland and the students here in the Gallery and throughout the country how much their fees are going to be. Is the Minister going to increase the fees by 50% like he said last week or is he going to agree and remain steadfast to the commitment Simon Harris made three weeks before the election that the Government would reduce fees if it was returned to office.

9:35 am

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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I, too, welcome the students here tonight. I am pleading with the Government. Since last Sunday week there has been nothing but uncertainty. It is not fair. Many students and their families struggle to afford the student contribution charge even with grants and other forms of support. The cost of living makes it nearly impossible. This is in the programme for Government. Why did the Government put it in there if it is going to do the exact opposite? Reducing the student contribution fee back to €2,000 from €3,000 will help and be a start on what is in the programme for Government. As Deputy Paul Lawless said, it is cynical. If we ultimately abolish the fees, it will increase accessibility and participation in higher education, reduce student debt and the financial burden on students and families who are already struggling and provide long-term economic benefits to our young population. Mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sí is my mantra always. The last of my children thankfully finished college a year ago. It is a tough situation and, with the cost of living and increasing prices, it is worse.

During the last Government, the Minister, Deputy O’Donovan, set out this criteria. I have some sympathy for Deputy James Lawless and what he is trying to do. By trying to put out an alert he caused more confusion, however, and then there was the over and back. Sinn Féin has student fees in the North of Ireland and there is no talk about that. Here in the South, we must do something to alleviate the pressure on students. We need them to become doctors and many other professions.

It has been a bad week for education. The Minister is here tonight again and I need to bring up the following matter. The ETBs have been cut drastically. What has been cut? It is apprenticeships and LTI courses for all the young people who fell off the tracks and are trying to get back on. Why are we making such pernicious attacks on students? I do not know. It is simply not fair in a time of so much so-called wealth and income. Why attack the students? They are the very people we want. They are our future.

Carol Nolan (Offaly, Independent)
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Tá áthas orm labhairt faoi tháillí na mic léinn anocht. Ba mhaith liom fáilte a chur roimh na mic léinn atá in éineacht linn tráthnóna. I support the motion, particularly the call to introduce a cost-of-living package which would cancel the scheduled €1,000 fee hike and reduce fees by a further €500, meaning the maximum fee this September would be €1,500 instead of €3,000. It is very unfair not to reduce student fees. I have so many families coming to me in distress and despair, and these are families who are working. They work hard but they feel they are punished for working as they are being taxed to the hilt, Some families are trapped in lower socioeconomic groups. It is so unfair that they are punished. We need to break the cycle of disadvantage and we do that by supporting students and not punishing families who work hard and pay their taxes.

There has to be a reversal of the ludicrous decision not to reduce the student fees this year. I call on the Government to reduce those fees to make it fair. It may be unpalatable for some to hear that I have had countless parents contact me, as I said, following my discovery through parliamentary questions last May that almost €9 million was paid by the Department of further and higher education in 2022 and 2023 in monthly stipends to Ukrainian students who are currently under temporary protection. The system is divisive. Those are not comments. My comments are facts. The system is very divisive when the Government can give to one category of students but deny another. A further €10 million was paid out on other schemes covering post-leaving certificate courses. I will end on that.

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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Bhíomar ag caint leis an Aire faoi seo an tseachtain seo caite. I hope the comments that caused real concern for young people and parents throughout the country were a blip. We need to be clear: we came together to put a Government together and we created a programme for Government. I remember us all discussing student fees in the course of the formation of the Government. We all decided on the commitment that the Government would, "Continue to reduce the Student Contribution Fee over the lifetime of the Government ... in a financially sustainable manner". That is the programme for Government we all signed up for, so I really do hope this was just a blip on the Minister’s end. I graduated this time last year and I have seen close up how students and parents sacrifice and borrow.

There is another matter I wish to raise. When a young student has been separated from their parents due to issues at home there is a huge issue - my friends went through this experience – where SUSI requires a letter from the courts or An Garda Síochána to show they have been separated from their parents. That is something we can reform. A person struggling with a 30 to 40 hours a week college course such as engineering, like I did, does not have the time or resources to go to the courts and get this letter to get the SUSI grant, and then he or she to work in a job on top of that.

I welcome the fact there is some movement in the right direction and the Minister said recently that we have to reduce the fees and tackle the real costs, including, as mentioned by Deputy Paul Lawless, rent and transport. Let us stick to the programme for Government we all signed up for and keep our word to the students up in the Gallery.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I, too, am glad to have the opportunity to discuss the matter. I thank Sinn Féin for giving us the chance to speak on behalf of the students. I welcome the students who are in the Gallery and wish them well for the coming year.

There are a number of things at play here. Many families do not qualify for SUSI. As a result, parents and students have to work very hard to ensure they have funding to go to college. The costs of accommodation, food and travel are excessive. Can the Minister visualise leaving a place like Valentia Island and travelling all the way to Killarney? That is an almost two-hour drive and it takes another two hours to get to Limerick to go to college. That costs money and time and wears on the students who go through it. It is a fact; that is what they have to do. Last year many students from Killarney had to travel on a bus to Limerick every day because they could not get accommodation in Limerick. That is a fact. Students have contacted me about that. It is a very serious matter. It is also very difficult to get accommodation in Cork. I respectfully ask both Ministers here tonight to reconsider in favour of the students and allow them the €1,000. They thought the measure would be there and they would only pay €2,000. I know the Minister commented that the €1,000 reduction last year was as part of a cost-of-living package. He told us he would reduce student fees and we cannot understand or agree to them being raised. I appeal to the Minister on behalf of students throughout the country, especially those in County Kerry who have to travel long journeys to go to college, to do the right thing on this occasion.

Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the students here this evening. I know how important it is to have student support when going to college. I went to a tech and got a grant to go to college. I would not have been able to do it otherwise. I worked throughout college. I know how important it is to have supports to be able to succeed in college and do what you want to do and what is in you. Let us be clear: Fianna Fáil is the party of education. From Donogh O’Malley's introduction of free secondary school education to today's SUSI reforms, our record speaks louder than any slogans. Over the past three years we have increased the SUSI maintenance grants to historic highs, restored postgraduate supports and raised the SUSI income threshold to €115,000, benefiting thousands of middle-income families.

Some 40% of students in the country receive a student grant. I want to see that increase. So does the Minister and so does this Government. I want to see the cost reduced. Yet, Sinn Féin returns here every year with the same uncosted motion, tabled in 2023, ignoring that student fees are rightly made in an annual budget. It is simply disingenuous.

Let us set out some of the facts. Promises were made by Fine Gael, not by Fianna Fáil, during the election when it had this brief. I will also lay out some other facts for our Government partners. This budget in this year was prepared not by the Minister, Deputy James Lawless, but by his Fine Gael predecessor. However, the Minister has been diligently addressing the reality inherited from the Tánaiste and the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, and has acted in good faith without resorting to press releases designed solely to grab headlines. What really matters here is not politics; it is the students. While we debate here, there is a cohort of families and students across the country from ordinary hardworking households who I am focused on supporting, for example, families with two or three children in college earning just above the grant thresholds, and they are under incredible, enormous strain. The Minister knows this and the Government knows this.

9:45 am

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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I thank the Deputy. I call Deputy Michael Cahill.

Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I, too, welcome the students to the Gallery this evening. The last three budgets reduced the cost of third level student fees by €1,000 per annum as part of the wider cost-of-living packages introduced by the Government. I am pressing the Minister to continue these reductions in fees for students on an ongoing basis as they and their families are hard-pressed to afford them. The cost-of-living crisis is still very much with us. Some might say that €1,000 is not a very large sum of money in the modern world, but I can vouch for the fact that it is very large to students and their families. I have been contacted by students and their families from all corners of County Kerry. I know students who are rising at 5 a.m. to go to work to earn a few bob towards college. Accommodation, transport, food, books, etc., are extremely expensive in Ireland today, and this reduction in fees must be carried forward so that students can continue with their further education.

We are speaking about the hard-pressed middle here. They deserve a break and they deserve our support. It is particularly difficult for parents with two or three students going to college. Education of our youth is vital, not alone to them but also to the economy of our country. It is only right and fitting that we continue to invest in our students for all our futures. Every student should have the right to undertake a college degree or diploma in their chosen fields, professions and trades and should not be held back by onerous fees. I have already raised this important matter with the Minister. I previously did so on many occasions as a councillor in County Kerry, and I am calling on him again this evening to make a very strong cases for continued student fee reductions to the Minister for Finance and the Minister for public expenditure in the budgetary discussions. I am convinced that the Minister will deliver for our students and their futures and for all our futures in this budget and future budgets, as committed to in the programme for Government.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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I am happy to join with the Minister, Deputy Lawless, and the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, to speak to this from a housing perspective because, obviously, that is another cost that is incurred by students. I want to outline what we will do in that regard.

I thank all contributors to this evening's debate. The Government is very much aware of the costs that students and families may encounter when attending tertiary education. We are committed to easing the financial burden on students and their families by reducing the cost of education in a way that is sustainable, equitable and, indeed, targeted. I can assure the House that the Government is absolutely committed to fair and equal access to quality further and higher education. This is reflected in the current student support framework that operates across the tertiary education system. Improved supports for students' access and inclusion will be at the heart of everything we will do, breaking down barriers to ensure everyone is provided with opportunities to reach their potential.

As we look to improve these supports, we must consider resources and where they are best deployed. We must recognise that the provision of further and higher education funding on an annual basis, including allocation towards student supports, are part of overall expenditure management and budgetary policy for Government. The programme for Government already sets out a commitment to reducing the student contribution in a financially sustainable manner over the lifetime of this Government. It is fully intended to progress this commitment and other programme for Government commitments in a way that is equitable, funded and fair.

It is important today to set out the work the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science is doing to effectively address the challenges in respect of student accommodation. The Minister, Deputy Lawless, recently published a design guide for State-sponsored student accommodation. The guide reflects stakeholder feedback, ensuring that design standards are both practical and responsive to real world needs. It will support the efficient delivery of additional student accommodation that prioritises student well-being, provides long-term value for the State and embodies high-quality architectural design. The technological sector student accommodation programme is assessing higher education institution proposals for student accommodation projects on or near each of their main campus locations. Stage two of this programme is under way with the development and assessment of initial preliminary business cases. Shortlisted projects will be underpinned by robust supply-and-demand evidence, provide value for money to the State and provide sustainable, viable and affordable accommodation for students.

Informed by these tools, a new student accommodation strategy will be published later this year. The strategy will address affordability and viability through funding, design and delivery of accommodation that is sustainable and regionally balanced. Almost 16,000 purpose-built student beds have been delivered since 2017. More than 3,000 of these are publicly owned. Of these, 924 publicly funded beds became available in UCD in 2021. Some 1,021 beds became available in 2023, that is, 674 in the University of Galway, 255 in University College Cork and nine in Trinity College Dublin, with the University of Limerick having acquired and opened 18 new students beds, and three in Mary Immaculate College. The first of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science's short-term activation projects at Maynooth University is on track for the 2025-26 academic year. The 116-bed project required €14.2 million in State funding. The Government also approved in principle €41 million for the DCU 405-bed project and €67 million for the UCD 493-bed project. Both projects are at the moment at tender phase. Officials from the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science have been in discussions with those from the Department of Children, Disability and Equality over the return of student accommodation to market. This has resulted in more than 2,000 previously contracted student beds being released this year.

Digs remain an alternative accommodation option. In 2023, the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science published a voluntary regulatory framework and sample licence agreement for homeowners and students. A 2025 advertising campaign asking homeowners to rent rooms to students will commence in August.

In terms of financial supports towards accommodation costs, the main financial support available to assist with the cost of college is the student grant scheme. Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, is open for applications and students can check their eligibility on www.susi.ie. There is a rent tax credit of €1,000 that became available in 2025. Where relevant, a parent can claim the tax credit on behalf of his or her student child. There is also a programme for Government commitment to increase this credit.

To briefly sum up, between the Ministers, Deputies Lawless and Browne, they are from an accommodation point of view bringing forward strategies that deliver apartments at scale and in an efficient way. That is a very important part of this. I urge students out there to avail of the €1,000 rent tax credit because what we are seeing from our figures is that quite a large number of students are not availing of that tax credit. I am confident that the Minister, Deputy Lawless, will bring forward proposals in the budget that are fair.

Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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I welcome the students to the Gallery and assure them that, despite what has been said, I and my Government colleagues do not live in an ivory tower. Our feet are firmly on the ground despite one of my colleagues having accused us a few minutes ago of having our heads down. In fact, I took notes on what he said so that I could respond to him. What we hear is this kind of bluster. What is being said here today is just false. What I want to do is look at the reality. In that context, I want to raise an issue that is often ignored in this debate, which is the flexibility of the tertiary system that leads to third level degrees, and the real and expanding supports for students both in terms of access and financial supports in that system. That is a priority for the Department.

These courses provide a pathway through further education to degree qualification in areas like software development, hospitality services and healthcare. We recently announced the launch of a new programme for September 2025, which includes programmes in critical areas such as occupational therapy, social care and nursing.

This is another example where we are supporting students. In 2024, for the first time supports were made available to students on certain part-time courses under the student grant scheme. This was the first time this happened. There were 62 eligible courses and, this year, the number of courses will almost double, to 109. That is a really important support for students and a good example of where this Government is listening and addressing some of the identified needs of students. It is a clear example of how we are expanding access to third-level qualifications and addressing the lived realities of so many people's lives.

As I said, there is a broad range of pathways in further education and training, allowing learners to progress in their education, especially in areas of high demand. For example, learners can step into the future with the one-year traineeship in AI and computer fundamentals or a traineeship in renewable construction technologies that offers hands-on experience. There are more apprenticeships on offer now than ever before. Alongside the traditional craft apprenticeships which have seen a 35% increase in new registrations in the past five years, there are consortia apprenticeships in areas like IT, biopharma and finance. Four new apprenticeships were launched in 2024, adding to the growing number. We added advanced manufacturing engineering at level 8, digital marketing at level 6, social work at level 9 and software solutions architecture at level 9. The apprenticeship model is "earn as you learn", again expanding access, providing different pathways and supporting students and their families in tertiary education. As I said, this is often ignored in the debate but it provides a real pathway for many students to attain their degrees and further education. The numbers accessing higher education in Ireland are way above the European average, as I learned while I was an MEP.

This Government is committed to progressing towards a system that is less reliant on temporary subventions and more focused on equitable and permanent solutions. That is why it fully intends to deliver on the programme for Government commitment to reduce the student contribution over the lifetime of this Government. That promise was made and will be delivered.

9:55 am

Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin (Wicklow-Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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The Government plan to hike fees by 50% or €1,000 in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis represents a betrayal of the students up in the Gallery, whom I welcome, and their parents. I am sure they will not forget this. Tá géarchéim costais mhaireachtála uafásach againn in Éirinn faoi láthair. Tá daoine ag fulaingt agus faoi bhrú mór. The cost-of-living crisis is raging and, instead of helping the students and their parents, the Government is adding fuel to the fire. The hike proposed nine days ago sent real fear throughout households that fees will go up by €1,000 as there will be no cost-of-living package in the budget this year. Chuir sé seo isteach ar go leor mac léinn agus a gcuid tuismitheoirí. It was the last thing students and their parents needed or expected to hear because promises were made not only in the election campaign but in black and white in the programme for Government. Bhí mic léinn agus a gcuid tuismitheoirí i gContae Chill Mhantáin agus i gContae Loch Garman i dteagmháil liomsa agus bhí siad thar a bheith buartha faoi seo. Worried students and parents across Wexford and Wicklow have contacted me as they had made decisions based on the commitment the fees would not go up. That was the expectation.

As the Minister will know, County Wexford, my own county, has one of the lowest rates of third-level access. Mar sin, is buille uafásach trom é seo. It is a blow to the families that simply had not planned for this extra €1,000 per student. This will impact tens of thousands of students across the State. It will mean the difference between going to college or not. As we all know, tá Éire thar a bheith saibhir faoi láthair. We are awash with money. We have the financial resources and it makes economic sense to invest in our people. The Government needs to turn back on this and go in the opposite direction on fees. It should be reducing them as promised.

Speaking as a teacher of 34 years, I believe education is a right and should be free and available to everyone. We would do well to remember the famous words of Benjamin Franklin, "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." I call on my fellow Deputies in Wexford-Wicklow, namely, Deputies Brian Brennan and Malcolm Byrne of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, respectively, to support Sinn Féin's motion this week. It is important for them to do so.

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the students here tonight. We in Sinn Féin appreciate their efforts to go to college and better themselves.

In a matter of weeks, students will be returning to their studies or setting off to college for the first time. What should be a time of excitement for so many will turn into a very stressful situation as they face the challenge of funding for so-called free education being impacted. Not content in recent weeks with weakening protections for student renters and driving their rents up further, the Government is now effectively toying with students by increasing the cost of their education by an additional €1,000.

Is this bluster? The Minister for further and higher education, the Minister for public expenditure, the Minister for finance, the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach refuse to clarify whether the bill due in a matter of weeks will be €2,000 or €3,000. It is a simple answer. Students and their families should not be victim to the internal manoeuvres of the disingenuous attempts by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to portray themselves as Opposition parties while they are in government, playing the deflection game as usual. It is apparent the well-being of students, financially and otherwise, is the furthest thing from the Government's mind.

While the Government refuses to bring clarity for students, the most substantive intervention it could muster was an utterly bizarre intervention from the Minister for further and higher education, who accused Sinn Féin of introducing uncertainty and called on the Opposition for clarity. Let me be very clear. Sinn Féin's proposal is to reduce fees by €1,500 as a first step to their full abolishment. Will the Minister please clarify if the Government will charge students more this year than the last year? Will it be €2,000 or €3,000? Can I please have an answer to this very simple question tonight?

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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This is very straightforward. This has been running for a week and half and we still do not know whether students - and in some cases their parents - will be paying €2,000 or €3,000. If we had the support of this Chamber and followed through on Sinn Féin's motion, students would be paying €1,500 next year. That is the clarity we need. How we got here, on some level, does not matter. I accept the Minister probably does not appreciate the sideswipes from his partners in government and I bet he can quite easily make the argument that they did not put in place the reductions in the long term.

I was in a house yesterday where the family was 100% sure they would be paying a maximum of €2,000. They have one more kid to go through college. It is a family I have called to many times and with which I have had a huge number of interactions. This, however, was the first time I had a real political discussion with the family where it got hot and heavy. As they see it, they pay for everything and get nothing. That is how an awful lot of people feel at this point in time.

We know the issues students face, one being the issue of accommodation. Students' rents will not be improved by the rent pressure zone legislation proposed by this Government.

There is a question as to whether they will be lucky enough even to get accommodation because we know how rare it is. There are many parents who have decided where their children can and cannot go to college. We know that many students are under huge pressure in relation to the working hours they have to put in to try to make ends meet.

We need an answer in this regard. I was going to say that we have heard much about the various types of pathways there are. I have said before that it is brilliant that we have PLCs and that the situation regarding apprenticeships is brilliant. However, Deputy David Cullinane and I had a debate with the Minister about the huge hole relating to ETBs at this time. Adult educators are under pressure and local training initiatives are at risk of being cut. There is a severe worry that while the Minister says no apprenticeships will be cancelled, they are going to be postponed, which will particularly impact trades. We need clarity around all of this. First and foremost, it is not okay that students will be paying more than €2,000 next year.

10:05 am

Donna McGettigan (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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Does the fact that we have to repeatedly bring forward this motion not show the Minister how important it is to us? It repeatedly has to be brought forward because of repeated broken promises by the Minister and the Government. That is why we have to come here, year in, year out, and that is why the students in the Visitors Gallery have to come here to watch us do this again.

I was the oldest of six children. When I was growing up, higher education was for the privileged. My mother could not afford to send me to college so it was a pipe dream. It was somewhere I might have wanted to go to but I could not. I could not afford to. I was stuck at home. I had to go out and work. Now, it looks like that is the way it is going to be again, where education is only for the privileged.

The Minister cannot say that those students in the Gallery are all wrong. They are all telling us that they are struggling. They are all telling us that they cannot afford an extra €1,000, and their parents and families are telling us the same story. I spoke to secondary school students two weeks ago. I asked them if they saw a future for themselves in Ireland and they said “No.” Not one of them said they could see a future for themselves in Ireland. That is shocking and very sad. One of the deepest conversations I had was with a 15-year-old. She said that it is not education that will get you somewhere in Ireland; it is luck and circumstance. For a 15-year-old to say that just shows us how things have gone wrong.

We are not saying that the Minister is not doing anything. We know that he is providing help but it is not enough. Certainty is what students and parents are looking for. Is it €2,000 or €3,000? That is what they want to know. They cannot go into a bank tomorrow and say they want to borrow €2,000 or €3,000. That is not the way it works.

Our proposals are fully costed by the Department of public expenditure. I know that because I have put in the questions. A Government Deputy earlier put forward the idea of blaming Fine Gael because they are the ones who promised this. Let me tell the Minister something. The two parties are both in government together. They both wrote the programme for Government. It is in black and white that they are going to reduce fees, not raise them.

I will tell the Minister once again. We are behind the students who are here tonight. We are behind their families. We need to stand up for them because the Minister is not doing that.

Amendment put.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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In accordance with Standing Order 85(2), the division is postponed until the next weekly division time tomorrow evening.

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Tuesday, 8 July 2025

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Student Fees: Motion [Private Members]