Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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1337. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the amount of the gap that was closed via Budget 2023, following his Future Funding in Higher Education report published in June 2022, in which a core funding gap of €307 million was identified and it stated that this would be closed with "additional investment over a number of budgets"; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27096/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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On May 4th 2022, the Government published Funding the Future, as part of the policy response to the independent report “Increasing the Sustainability of Higher and Further Education in Ireland”, a comprehensive economic evaluation of the various funding options presented in the Cassells Expert Group Report (2016).

Funding the Future confirmed that a mixed funding model would be adopted to ensure the sustainable funding of higher education into the future. This comprises a mix of Exchequer investment, employer contributions through the National Training Fund and student contributions.

As the Deputy outlines, Funding the Future identified a figure of €307 million, agreed between DFHERIS and DPENDPR, as representing the quantum of increase in core funding required to deliver enhanced performance, strategic reforms and strengthened quality of outcomes.

Budget 2023 delivered €40 million additional funding, aligned to Funding the Future,as an initial step with the intention that over a number of years, further additional core funding will be prioritised through the Estimates process, while taking account of the Government’s budgetary and fiscal stance.

It should be noted that the figure of €307 million was calculated relative to a particular point in time and does not include funding required for future requirements such as pay agreements or demographics-related expansion, with additional funding also provided by my Department in 2023 to also address those specific areas.

Work is ongoing through the Funding the Future implementation structures to identify and measure the reform impact of increased core investment against the background of an evolving higher education system.