Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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300. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his Department has commissioned any polling of the general public related to possible or existing policies within the remit of his Department for the period 1 January 2021 to date; if so, if he will provide details of the policies; the costs incurred for each individual poll; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4045/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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There have been no direct polls undertaken by the Department from 1 January 2021 to date.

Three public consultations were conducted by, or for, my Department in this time period:

- A public consultation was carried out in February 2021 on the reform of the Higher Education Authority Act 1971. A consultation paper was prepared and published on 19 February, 2021 seeking the up to date views of stakeholders. Forty five responses were received to this consultation process and the responses received were considered as part of the further development of the Higher Education Authority legislation. There were no costs incurred.

- A public consultation and online survey of students were carried out in Q2, 2021 to support the review of the National Student Grant Scheme as set out under the current Programme for Government and announced as part of Budget 2021. The costs of this survey are not available as this element of the wider review was not costed separately.

- A public consultation was held in June and July 2021 for the National Research and Innovation Strategy. There were no costs incurred.