Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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365. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if additional funding will be provided to college and university library services to enable students to access academic textbooks online; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30354/20]

Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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366. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if additional funding will be provided to college and university online virtual learning environment management systems which in some cases do not have the capacity to accommodate the amount of students currently using the systems; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30355/20]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 365 and 366 together.

The Government has provided additional funding in the amount of €168m to support the return of students to further and higher education. For the Education providers under the remit of my Department, the allocation includes funding towards Immediate ICT costs relating to online provision.

My Department allocates recurrent funding to the Higher Education Authority (HEA) for direct disbursement to HEA designated higher education institutions. The HEA allocates this funding as a block grant to the institutions. The additional funding allocation has been assessed by the HEA and a final breakdown and distribution of funding allocation for the costs incurred is being finalised and correspondence will issue to all eligible providers in the coming weeks. As autonomous bodies, the internal disbursement of the allocated funding, including any expenditure on the items queried by the Deputy, are a matter for the individual institution.

I will continue to work with further and higher education providers, agencies and key stakeholders including student representatives to mitigate the additional pressures faced as a result of Covid-19.