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

I thank the Senator. The Government has also committed to continuing to address the cost of participation in third level education so that every person in our country can fulfil his or her potential and no person is denied access to education because cost is a barrier. In budget 2023, in recognition of the cost-of-living challenges faced by students paying the full student contribution fee, we have introduced a once-off reduction of €1,000 for the academic year 2022-23. This additional support towards tuition fees will benefit more than 94,000 students.

This week, we also announced a €75 million package to support students and families with the costs of attending higher education via the student grant scheme. As part of the package, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science was pleased to secure agreement on the introduction from September 2023 of a new rate of student contribution support through SUSI that means up to 50,000 extra families may be eligible for help towards paying the undergraduate student contribution.

For the 2023-24 academic year, we are increasing the income limits to avail of the 50% undergraduate student contribution grant for families from €55,000 to €62,000, thereby creating new income thresholds for undergraduate student contribution support to the value of €500 for families on qualifying incomes of between €62,000 and €100,000. This is all in addition to €18.8 million in supports previously announced in budget 2022, and very much aligns with the approach outlined in Funding the Future to address access for students, which was covered in detail prior to the budget in the Government's first cost of higher education paper.