Matt Carthy demands clarity on looming student fee rise

Minister, your government is all over the place on student fees. We have had the Minister for Higher Education, James Lawless, clearly stating on Sunday that without a cost of living package in the budget, college fees are going up by €1,000 in September. His position was then backed up by the Taoiseach Michal Martin. So today, let us clear this mess up. I have just one simple question for you, and it is the same question that has been anxiously asked in kitchen tables all over the country. When students get their bill in September, how much will they be asked to pay? Will it be €2,000 or €3,000? Students and their families need an answer to that question today, Minister, and it is the only question I have for you. The brevacy of your question gives me a moment to outline what government is already doing to help with the student accommodation and to make a difference to what we know is a huge cost for many families. The government is very clear in recognising that education, particularly higher and further education, allows students to fulfil their potential and makes a vital role in the economic development of our country and creating the jobs and culture that is the heart of the progress that Ireland is making. Let me outline the supports that we are already making and what we are already doing to respond back to the need that we know is there. At the moment, with the support that the government has made available through Minister Lawless, through the work of this and the last government, one in three students at the moment did not pay a student contribution. They did not make that contribution. Half of students at the moment, through the SUSE scheme that is available, are supported in costs for becoming students that we know are difficult. The government has adjusted the standard rate income thresholds by 15% to ensure that more families, more students are in a position to get the help that they need. As it is today, households with an income of up to €64,000 do not pay a student contribution and for those families that have more people within them or higher numbers of children, that ceiling is higher again. For postgraduate education, maintenance grants have now been fully restored. And ASUSI support is now available for the first time for somebody who is on a hybrid or part-time education. So that is what the government has already done. That is what is already in place in recognition by us of the great challenge that many families do face and the students face in costs for education that we know are high. And that is the supports that are in place. So why have we been able to do this? It is for two reasons. Firstly, it is due to the hard work of the Irish people and the contribution that they make to our economy that in turn creates the resources that we are in a position then to spend. And secondly, it is because, budget by budget, the government has put in place measures that we believe we can sustain, that are affordable, that can accompany all the other things that we need to do in hiring further education for students. The capital investment that Minister Lawless announced a number of days ago in relation to additional student accommodation, excuse me, additional student facilities, more facilities for a group of universities. The funding that is in place to help improve the quality of education that students received, that only a week ago resulted in many Irish universities moving up the world of league ratings regarding their academic performance. So budget by budget, we make changes that we believe are affordable, that recognise the challenges that are there. Which is why what we will do is in the approaching budget, do what we normally do. Put in place measures, including those to deal with the cost of becoming a student, with the challenge that so many families face, that we know is affordable, that we know we can fund, that we know we can build upon in the years ahead. Minister Lawless, myself, Minister Chambers are very clear on what that objective is. We are very clear that temporary measures that were in place when inflation was so high, we now need to look at how we can put in place other measures that can make a difference to something we know is such an acute difficulty for so many, and for so many are already receiving support that we know is needed. Your question may have been brief, but the answer in relation to it is longer outlining the supports and the difference that we already make that we want to build upon. Mr. Speaker, we've had the Taoiseach, we've had the Minister for Higher Education, the Minister for Public Expenditure, and now the Minister for Finance. All together, between yous all, cannot answer the most simple question, that as I say, is going to have a life defining impact on many students and their families who are having conversations today, Minister. They are having conversations today that are going to have an impact for the rest of their life, whether they can travel to university or college, or whether they have to find somewhere more locally, whether they will be able to afford a place to rent, or whether they will have to commute. They don't want to hear what politicians are planning to do at some point in the future. I could stand up here and talk about how Sinn Fein don't want to just keep fees at 2,000, we want to abolish them, but that isn't going to answer the questions that are being asked today. And I'll ask you one more time, the same question that has been put to your Taoiseach, to the Tanisha and to successive ministers all week. Are fees going to be 2,000 euro as they were last year, or are they going to be higher? Please Minister, give people the common decency. Come down from your ivory tower and answer that question, because they need to know and they need to know today. It is exactly because this issue is life defining for so many, that the government already has support some place, that of course you will never acknowledge in any contribution that you make. The difference between those of us who sit over here, and you Deputy Carty, is we are interested, we are interested in solutions rather than sound bites. We are interested in action that will make a difference rather than your attempt at action for the issue of the day. The answer in relation to this question is the same as the answer that has been given at every other point in recent years, which is that because this is such an important issue, it is an issue that has to be decided, budget by budget, in the engagement that every minister has with the rest of government, with the Minister for Public Expenditure, and the progress, the supports that are in place recognise that this is not only something that will be life defining in a positive way, but something that also brings with it costs. What this government wants to do is help in a permanent way, and we will outline our answer to that serious question, as we will with many others, when the budget is complete.