David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

321. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to set out the estimated cost of increasing the grant to reflect inflation rates and the consumer price index year-on-year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24517/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The cost of linking student maintenance grants to the CPI would be entirely contingent on movements in the CPI.

According to the Central Statistics Office, the annual average rate of inflation in 2017 was 0.4%. This compares to a no change for 2016 and a fall of 0.3% for 2015.

Maintenance grant expenditure in 2016/17 was €171 m. Applying a 0.4% increase to this figure would increase the cost by €684 k.