Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator. I appreciate his raising this important issue. I am happy to provide an update on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Harris, on Funding the Future and the implementation of a sustainable model for the future funding of higher education.

The Minister, Deputy Harris, launched the Funding the Future framework, along with the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, on 4 May. The policy is a response to the Cassells report and the Directorate General for Structural Reform Support, DG REFORM, reviews on the future of higher education. The Government has made important decisions about the sustainable model for the future funding of higher education and, critically, we have definitively taken student loans off the table. We have instead chosen a mixed model of investment, which includes funding from the Exchequer, employers and students. The policy sets out the vision and direction of higher education funding, our ambition to drive reform and support agility and responsiveness in the sector, and the need to ensure students are supported in accessing education and training. This includes the planned investment of €307 million to address core funding challenges for our institutions. This will be made over a number of years through annual budgetary processes. It does not account for future demographic needs or new policy proposals for higher education. There are plans to consider options to address cost as a barrier to higher education and how we will pursue funding measures on these issues through the Estimates process, including in respect of reductions to student contribution and enhancement to the Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, grants in line with the student grant review.

The provision of higher education funding on an annual basis is a part of the overall expenditure management and budgetary policy of the Government. It is, of course, imperative that funding be made available to the Department to support these plans to progress reform, to implement a sustainable funding model while addressing the identified core funding gap, to improve pathways from further education and training, FET, to higher education, HE, and to address costs as a barrier to higher education.

The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science was pleased to announce significantly increased levels of funding as part of the recent budget. Over 2022 and 2023, an additional €150 million is being made available to the higher education sector. In 2023, additional ongoing core funding of €40 million is being provided to improve quality and sustainability. An additional €32 million is available to provide sectoral capacity for demographic demand. There is also an additional €20 million for pension costs. A further €56 million in once-off funding is being made available in 2022 for pension liabilities. The investments will facilitate €18 million for capacity building in linked key policy areas for universities and specialist colleges; €18 million for technological university transformation, specifically structural capacity strengthening; €2.4 million for increased funding for exiting medicine places to protect quality and enhance the sustainability of the system; and €2 million for a fund to support increased flexibility in delivery, including co-developed and co-delivered programmes across FET and HE.

This investment is the first significant step in addressing core underfunding of the higher education system in a strategic and reformative way. By providing capacity building for key roles, we are resourcing the sector to adapt and respond to key strategic reform measures. This progress has been expertly aided by the work of the Funding the Future implementation group co-chaired by the Minister and Professors Anne Looney and Tom Collins, which will now continue its remit to develop reform recommendations to inform the implementation of these measures and the development of future budgetary considerations.

In addition, the work of Funding the Future and a recent spending review realised a 25% increase in the level of demographic funding per additional student for the 2022-23 academic year. Through budget 2023, we also secured additional funding of €32.2 million to build capacity for up to an additional 4,125 students. Furthermore, as part of the cost-of-living measures in budget 2023, we also introduced a once-off allocation of €10 million to assist with rising operational costs faced by our FET and HE providers in 2022.

This significant allocation of public resources is a clear demonstration of the Government's commitment to meeting the future needs of the higher education sector to more fully realise its potential in contributing to economic and societal priorities that are central to the country's long-term sustainability.