Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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320. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the amount of the allocation to the Higher Education Authority that will cover pay restoration in 2019; and the amount same is projected to cost in 2020. [13153/19]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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In Budget 2019 my Department secured additional funding of €21.109m to meet the pay restoration costs for the third level sector in 2019. An additional €57m in current funding was also secured by my Department in Budget 2019 to build on the process of reinvestment in higher education in recent years. Overall higher education spending has increased by 17% compared to 2016 to a projected €1.76 billion in 2019.

My Department will be working in co-operation with the Department of Expenditure and Reform, via the Estimates process, to provide for pay restoration costs for the sector in 2020.