Written answers
Tuesday, 11 May 2021
Department of Education and Skills
Education Costs
Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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594. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the higher education expenditure as a percentage of GDP, GNI and modified GNI in each year since 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23726/21]
Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The provision of funding for Higher Education on an annual basis is part of overall expenditure management and budgetary policy. Since 2016, as represented in the table below, there has been a significant programme of investment in higher education. Funding and policy developments taken in recent Budgets have taken significant steps to meet the funding needs of the sector including Covid-19 related financial support provided for in 2020. As Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, I am committed to continuing the process of investing in our higher education system and to the development and implementation of a sustainable funding model for the sector.
The tables below summarise Higher Education sector funding since 2016, and indicative figures showing this funding as a proportion of GDP, GNP and modified GNI (GNI*). No indicators are yet available from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on GNI and GNI* for 2020.
| Higher Education Funding (€million) | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voted Higher Education Funding * | 1,515 | 1,585 | 1,606 | 1,734 | 1,899 |
| Non-voted Higher Education Funding (National Training Fund) | 27 | 37 | 99 | 192 | 317 |
| Total Higher Education Funding | 1,542 | 1,622 | 1,705 | 1,926 | 2,215 |
| Higher Education Funding as % of National Indicators ** | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
| Gross Domestic Product (GDP) | 0.6% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0.6% |
| Gross National Income (GNI) | 0.7% | 0.7% | 0.7% | 0.7% | n/a |
| Modified Gross National Income (GNI*) | 0.9% | 0.9% | 0.9% | 0.9% | n/a |
*Voted Higher Education expenditure is from latest published Estimates: i) 2020 Vote 45 (Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science), ii) 2016 to 2019 Vote 26 (Department for Education and Skills).
**National indicators used in calculations are: i) 2016 to 2019 indicators at current market prices from the CSO National Income and Expenditure 2019 report, ii) 2020 GDP figure at constant market price from the CSO 2020 Q4 National Accounts.
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