Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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614. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the academic or budgetary year the €307 million corresponds to given that reports indicate the economic evaluation of the Cassells report has outlined an annual funding gap of €307 million; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23347/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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It is my Department's policy intention that, over a number of years, additional annual core funding of €307million will be prioritised through the Estimates process in order to deliver on the increased level of funding identified in this framework, while taking account of the Government’s budgetary and fiscal stance.  It should be noted that the annual budgetary figure of €307 million does not account for future demographic needs or new policy proposals for higher education.

The Increasing the Sustainability of Higher and Further Education in Ireland report, based on 2018/19 data, indicated that €317m of additional funding would be needed per student cohort to reinstate a sustainable level of core funding to the higher education sector. A technical assessment of this identified funding gap was undertaken in early 2022 by my officials and Officials from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.  This assessment and agreement of the €307m annual funding need reflects core funding decisions taken since 2018 and the growth in full time Irish/EU student numbers between 2008 and 2022.

The technical assessment considered the current funding position for the 2022 budgetary year and estimated 2021/2022 full time Irish/EU student numbers compared to the 2008 budgetary year and 2007/08 full time Irish/EU student numbers.

An overview of the technical update of the independent review of the future sustainability of Further and Higher Education is available on the gov.ie website at the following location: www.gov.ie/en/policy-infure-funding-in-higher-education/.