Maeve O'Connell (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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950. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills for an update on when his Department will activate the new phase of structural support funding for HEIs. [34389/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I was very happy to announce a new phase of structural support funding for eligible higher education institutions in early June 2025 with the introduction of the Targeted Enhancement Fund (TEF).

The fund is being administered on my behalf by the Higher Education Authority who issued a call for applications on June 4th. Eligible HEIs are Technological Universities (TUs), Institutes of Technology (IoTs), and publicly funded specialist colleges, must apply for this fund by 21 August 2025.

The fund is worth up to €65.8m over a 36-month period. It will provide targeted support for initiatives that are critical to the strategic development of eligible HEIs. It will contribute towards the cost of maintaining or initiating enhancement activities that are central to an institution delivering on its mission and strategic plan. Related to this, the TEF makes provision for an institution to mainstream selected, strategic initiatives that have been financed by other timebound funding streams, including the Technological Sector Advancement Fund (TSAF), Performance Funding, and the Human Capital Initiative. The TEF will also make provision for activities relating to further landscape reform.

Successful projects under the TEF are expected to commence on 1 January 2026.

This comes as the latest phase of structural funding that my Department has made available to the higher education sector, following the award of the following:

• €31 million under the HE Landscape Fund between 2013/14 and 2019/20, which was aimed at supporting the establishment and expansion of TUs.
• €90 million under the Technological Universities Transformation Fund between 2020/21 and 2022/23, which was used to provide financial support for the TUs in their establishment phase.
• The Technological Sector Advancement Fund, which makes €50 million available for the technological sector to support the consolidation phase.