Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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466. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to increase further the student contribution charge in budget 2015; if she acknowledges the difficulty this charge causes already hard pressed families; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37882/14]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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467. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if the €25 million in higher education funding that has been held back from the higher education budget in the past two years will be returned; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37883/14]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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476. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she is satisfied that the cash balances held by the higher education sector have been depleted; if so, if she proposes to reinstate the €25 million budget cut to the sector initiated in 2013; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37927/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 466, 467 and 476 together.

The decision to increase the Student Contribution, which stands at €2,750 for the current academic year, to €3,000 by 2015/16 has already been signalled by the previous Minister. It should be noted that some 50% of students who qualify for free fees have the Student Contribution paid on their behalf by the Exchequer under my Department's Student Grant Scheme.

A 2012 Comptroller and Auditor General report noted that Universities and Institutes of Technology (IOTs) had cash balances of €706 million at the end of the 2010/11 academic year. When account was taken of restricted reserves and other capital funding requirements, and pension reserves, the cash balance for recurrent purposes was €568 million which also included private sources of income.

Due to the significant cash balances identified, a decision was taken in Budget 2013 to apply a reduction of €25m to the sector so as to ensure a more prudent management of existing cash balances. This funding was not restored in Budget 2014 as it was felt that the Higher Education Institutions still had significant amounts of cash at their disposal.

The Deputy will appreciate that in line with normal practice I am unable to comment on the budgetary process.

An Expert Working Group chaired by Peter Cassells is currently preparing a Report on future funding policy for higher education. The objective is to identify a range of approaches that, combined, will achieve a sustainable funding base to address the continual expansion of the sector while protecting the quality of education.