Cathal Byrne (Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for coming to the House. As this is our first interaction, I wish him the very best in his role over the coming term and I look forward to plenty of engagement.

The Fine Gael group of Senators has tabled this motion tonight recognising the importance of third level education for both the economy and wider society. Access to education at third level, be that through universities, our technological university or apprenticeships, will be important over the course of this Government and into the future. We recognise in this motion the establishment of the Department of higher education and also the fact that it has been retained at Cabinet level, which is something I think will be very important over the next five years. We recognise the work that was done under the Minister's predecessors, the now Tánaiste, Deputy Simon Harris, and also the Minister, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan, around a number of key areas. Establishing a new Department is never straightforward, particularly when it involves the separation and clear removal of powers from what was previously the Department of Education into a new, laser-like and focused Department of higher education. We recognise that in this motion.

Specifically, we have ten requests, and my colleagues are going to delve more into the detail of each individual one. I specifically want to highlight a number of them. Over the past two budgets, we have seen a clear reduction in the student contribution fee for third level students. In budget 2024, we saw a reduction of €1,000 that, when coupled with a one-off cost-of-living grant, meant a reduction of €1,500 for an ordinary student attending third level university. In budget 2024, that was retained, and I would encourage the Minister to seek the funding to secure a further reduction. There cannot be a situation where we see the €3,000 contribution, which was €2,000 for the previous two years, restored to €3,000. High costs to accessing education act as a barrier, and no student should have to consider whether to attend third level this year or delay for a year owing to costs. That must be a priority for the Minister and his Department over the coming term, and I would encourage him to seek that funding and commit to reducing and abolishing the student contribution fee for third level education over the course of this term.

Another area my colleagues are going to highlight is increasing the holiday earnings deduction for student grants. If a student takes up part-time employment to gain life skills and experience and enters the workforce, contributing in a meaningful way to our economy, it should never be the case that the student has to make a choice between working that extra shift or the available overtime hours and having student grants. We recognise the work that has been done by the Minister's predecessors on this, and we are calling for that holiday deduction to be increased. It was previously set at €7,925 and has now been increased to €8,424. We are calling on the Minister to increase that further to ensure that the SUSI grants to students at third level remain accessible to all and that the forced choice between working overtime and taking up the grant does not apply.

My colleagues are also going to highlight the need for additional capital funding for the third level sector, including allowing a borrowing framework to allow our third level technological universities to have clear access to capital funding for student accommodation and other initiatives.I highlight the work done in my county of Wexford in establishing the South East Technological University, SETU. I commend the Department on the progress made in that area to date. We are seeking our own purpose-built, designated campus in Wexford. While great work is done day in and day out on the St. Peter's College campus, the site is not suitable for the level of ambition SETU has for Wexford. As the Minister is aware, there is a legal dispute surrounding the compulsory purchase order, CPO, of the site in question. His departmental colleague with responsibility for apprenticeship programmes, the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, previously gave clarity on that issue in the Chamber. A business case is being given ongoing consideration by the Higher Education Authority, HEA, regarding the viability of a purpose-built, designated university campus for the south east at the Wexford location. I encourage the pushing forward of that case.

I commend the motion to the House and urge Members to support it. My Fine Gael colleagues will make further comment on it as the debate proceeds.