Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator Nelson Murray for raising this issue. It is a matter that has been brought to the attention of the Department on a number of occasions. The main financial support available to students is SUSI. Reckonable income includes all sources of household income, including income from a student’s employment. However, holiday earnings is income that a student can earn outside their term time that can be deducted from their total family income assessment, up to a certain limit. This is designed to support students who work during the holidays while also ensuring that work commitments do not interfere with their studies. That limit has increased in recent years, reflecting an increase in the minimum wage.

The issue of holiday earnings has been raised by various stakeholders and by students' unions. Over the past few years, the Department has published an annual options paper which outlines the costs and potential impacts of a range of policy options aimed at reducing the cost of higher education. The Minister recently published this paper, and options around holiday earnings have been costed for consideration. The options paper is available to view the Government website. The options outlined in the paper note that any potential removal of the provision which limits the deduction of holiday earnings to earnings outside of term time and the limit remaining at €8,424 would have a potential full year cost of €26 million. Increasing this limit to €12,000 could have a potential full-year cost of up to €35 million. SUSI estimates that circa 20,500 students could benefit from this change and could also see some students qualifying for the special rate of maintenance grant. Any amendments to this must be considered in the overall budgetary context and the large number of competing demands on funding.