Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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163. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated increase in Exchequer spending that would be required to bring Ireland in line with the OECD average for spending on higher education as a share of GDP; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18686/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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There are no officially published statistics for 2022 which provide the full information covering expenditure on higher education as a proportion of national income of the type requested by the Deputy. It is therefore not possible to definitively calculate the costs sought.

For International comparisons I can advise that the OECD, as part of its Education at a Glance publication, provides an assessment of expenditure on tertiary education as a proportion of GDP. In Ireland this includes further and higher education. Expenditure covers not just government expenditure but also expenditure by households; and expenditure from international and private sources. For Ireland, the most recent OECD report based on financial data for 2018 suggests tertiary education expenditure represented 0.9% of GDP, compared to an OECD average of 1.4%. However, in reality this data does not provide a meaningful comparative analysis, given that GDP is not regarded as a good measure of the size of the domestic economy in Ireland. This is borne out by the fact that average figures for expenditure per student at tertiary level were slightly above the OECD average.

In terms of a more meaningful and recent comparison it is possible to give a general approximation of GDP, GNI and modified GNI proportions for the publicly funded Higher Education system, comprising funding investment by my Department towards grant funding and student support expenditure. Based on the Central Statistics Office's assessment of the size of the economy in 2020 and expenditure on higher education via my Department for that year, the proportion of national income on higher education and student support was in the order of:

- Around 0.6% as a proportion of GDP;

- Around 0.8% as a proportion of GNI.

- Around 1.1% as a proportion of modified GNI, which is the measure which most accurately represents the size of the Irish economy.

It is also important to say that public investment in higher education through my Departments allocation is on an upward trend, and now stands at €2.4 billion. Annual current expenditure has increased by 40% since 2015. I am committed to continuing the process of investing in our higher education system and to the development and implementation of a sustainable funding, reform and performance model for the sector