Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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157. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of increasing core funding to publicly funded third-level institutions by 1%. [27508/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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My Department has allocated €1.058b in recurrent core funding to publicly funded third level institutions in 2018 therefore the estimated cost of increasing the core funding by 1% is approximately €10.5m. It should also be noted that in addition my department has also provided over €400m in Student Support funding in 2018. The estimated cost of increasing this by 1% is €4 million.

I wish to advise the Deputy that since publication of the Cassells Report I have prioritised additional investment in higher education in Budget 2017 and Budget 2018. As a result, the Department of Education and Skills is investing €100m more in higher education in 2018 compared to 2016. I will look to build on this investment in 2019 and beyond.

This additional funding will allow for targeted initiatives in higher education including skills programmes, performance and innovation funding, technological university development and apprenticeship costs in the sector. It will also allow for places to be provided for 2,100 additional students in 2018.

Furthermore as part of Budget 2018, the Government raised the National Training Fund levy by 0.1% in 2018 to 0.8%.  It is proposed to further increase it by 0.1% in both 2019 and 2020 subject to a review of the Fund which has been undertaken by my Department officials. The      increase in funding from the National Training Fund is a key strategic element of the overall funding increase for higher and further education.