Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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471. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the amount his Department has spent to date on student supports and grants. [41450/20]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I have made clear from day one that access and inclusion are at the core of my vision for my new Department. 

My Department will spend well over €400 million on student supports in 2020 including the SUSI scheme.  As part of Budget 2021, I have secured an additional €20 million to provide for additional applicants, €6 million to expand supports to postgraduate students and an additional €1.5 million to support the most disadvantaged students through the 1916 Bursary scheme.  I have also secured a €50 million fund to support full-time students in third level this year. 

This is on top of a range of additional supports which have been provided to reflect the particular circumstances of learners affected by the pandemic, including  an additional €10m for access supports services, €15m in IT equipment grants and €3m for wellbeing and mental health.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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472. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the amount his Department has spent since it was established; and the breakdown on the spending. [41451/20]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Arising from the establishment of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and the transfer of functions in the areas of further education, skills development and higher education and including the non-voted National Training Fund, it became necessary to transfer the relevant subhead allocations from the Department of Education (Vote 26) to the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Vote 45).

The formal transfer of functions from the Department of Education to the new Department came into effect on 21 October. As part of the 2020 Further Revised Estimate (FREV) that was considered and agreed by Dáil Éireann, Vote 45 was established on 18 November. This FREV approved the full-year allocation of €2.3 Billion from the Department of Education for related functions transferred and other additional funding of €173 million to be transferred to the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. A further €43.5 million once-off fund in 2020 to support students in the third level sector is also to be approved this week. It is also worth noting that effective from 1 January 2021 additional functions in respect of research, innovation and science will be transferred to the Department and the 2021 budgets allocation will reflect this transfer.

When the transfer of functions between Departments becomes effective during the course of a calendar year, the full year funding allocations are transferred with the functions. The corresponding spend on the transferred functions are accounted for from start of the year (i.e. 1 January) by the Department that is taking on the transferred functions.

Therefore, the figures in this PQ response are based on the spend since 1 January to 30 November 2020 that are associated with the transferred functions that became effect to the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science during 2020. The total Department Vote 45 and non-Voted National Training Fund spend to the end of November 2020 is €2.665 billion and a breakdown of this spend is set out in the table attached.

">Breakdown on Spending