Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are many topics we could discuss in higher education. I welcome the Minister of State here today. The Minister touched on mental health in his opening remarks. I welcome what he said about prioritising the funding that was announced last month and that must go first and foremost towards counselling services.

I have three questions which the Minister of State might be able to answer or the Department could write back to me on them. I seek clarity on how that funding is managed. A letter the CEO of the HEA, Dr. Alan Wall, sent to the higher education institutions, HEIs, stated: "The HEA is encouraging all HEIs in receipt of this funding to distribute it in support of specific students facing areas such as...". Will the Minister of State provide a concrete guarantee that there is no loophole in the use of the words "such as" and give a clear message that this money is to be directly used for the expansion, development and improvement of student counselling services specifically. The same letter stated: "This package includes additional funding of €3m to underpin wellbeing and mental health and student services in our HEIs and is in addition to the €2m allocated for 2020 as notified to your institution in this year’s grant letter." Will the Minister of State confirm that this money should not be used to fill previous existing roles in student counselling services budgets, but rather that the allocation should be in addition to the existing student counselling budgets in future?

I ask the Minister of State to provide reassurances that budgets for student counselling services are to be protected and earmarked in the future to avoid potential cuts in the coming area. I welcome what the Minister said. This funding was announced last month to be ring-fenced for mental health services. Managements cannot decide to use it in other areas that are not directly for mental health. I welcome the Minister, Deputy Harris, saying that it should be predominantly used for counselling services before anything else.