Third Level Education
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-29
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James Lawless (FF), Kildare North

More broadly, in terms of supporting students and families, particularly on lower income levels, my focus has always been on targeted supports. While I have introduced universal measures on fees, and I will continue to do so, my focus is on ensuring that, for people who are on the verge of missing out and would not experience college otherwise and for vulnerable families and people who may be the first in their family to access third level education, the focus of student supports is to get those people elevated into a situation where they can make that leap. At the moment, some of those students just cannot make it, which is a tragedy. I want to target measures to help students do that. To give an example of that, the student grant was increased this year. I also increased all the non-adjacent grants so any student travelling beyond 30 km will now benefit from that, some by up to €430 or €350, depending on the band. I did likewise for postgraduate courses and apprenticeships, which are equally important. All those figures have been addressed and brought down through increased subventions.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:34+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-29