Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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375. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he is aware of the significant divergence between the hourly rates of pay afforded to personal assistants working in the ETB sector, and funded through SOLAS, and personal assistants working in the higher education system, funded by the Higher Education Authority; if he has engaged with the HEA to address this inequity; if he will provide a full-year costing estimate for the total cost of bringing the personal assistant hourly rate in the HEI system in line with the rate in the ETB sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43598/24]

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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376. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to confirm the number of personal assistants employed either directly or through agencies/contractors in each of the HEA recognised third-level institutions as of the 30 September 2024, in tabular form; if he will confirm the identity of the individual agencies that provide personal assistants to each third-level institution; if he will provide information on the value of every such contract in 2023 and 2024; if he will confirm the minimum rate of hourly pay in each third-level institution for personal assistants in place for the 2024-2025 academic year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43599/24]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 375 and 376 together.

The Higher Education Authority (HEA) manages the Fund for Students with Disabilities (FSD) for higher education on behalf of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS). Funding under the FSD is provided to HEIs as a block grant to assist them in offering supports and services to eligible students with disabilities so that they can participate on an equal basis with their peers. The use of this allocation within HEIs is informed by needs assessments conducted in collaboration with individual students, and in accordance with the guidelines of the funding. These supports and services can include assistive technology equipment and software, academic/learning support, and personal assistants.

I am pleased to say as a part of Budget 2025 that I have increased the funding assigned to the FSD by over 18%. This brings the value of the total fund to €9.504 million for 2025. In 2024, over 17,500 students have availed of supports via the FSD. Increasing participation of students with disabilities in Higher Education is a key objective in the National Action Plan for Equity of Access to Higher Education and the rate of new entrants with a disability into higher education has increased from 12.4% to 13.8% since the NAP was launched in 2022.

There are differing arrangements in place with regard to support for students with disabilities within higher education institutions (HEI's). These arrangements reflect the differing need profiles of students and the fact that, as autonomous institutions, HEIs have the flexibility to identify the most appropriate arrangements to best support students. Reflecting this diversity of arrangements, there is not a recognised or centralised PA grade in the HE sector.

As autonomous institutions, HEIs are afforded the flexibility to identify the most appropriate arrangements to best support the identified needs of students and to assign services based on those needs. HEIs are responsible for the management of the funding in accordance with the FSD Guidelines.

As the HEIs are provided with FSD as block grant the HEA does not collect or hold the data requested on the number of personal assistants employed either directly or indirectly through agencies. Due to the diversity of arrangements in the HEIs, the varying levels of assistance provided and the unavailability of the data, it is not possible to estimate the full year cost of bringing the two sectors in line.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.