Yesterday, the House agreed that Israel is acting illegally under international law. We have a window of opportunity to use the powerful lever of Horizon funding to pressure Israel to end its apartheid regime. The new Horizon fund, which is worth €95.5 billion, represents a chance to hold Israel to account in respect of what the House agreed yesterday is the de facto annexation of Palestinian lands. For Israel to access funding and the high-value research network relating to Horizon, it has to renegotiate a bilater…

I welcome the fact that the Economic and Social Research Institute of Ireland, ESRI, is conducting research on the economic and social opportunities from increased co-operation on the island. I have read the scoping paper in detail, particularly the section on education. We need to come away with clear actions that can be implemented to increase North-South co-operation on third level education and associated timelines. We have been conducting reports and carrying out research on cross-Border co-operation since the…

I thank the Minister for answering the questions about the LIS. Mayo is one of the largest counties and has the greatest number of LIS roads as well. In addition to the severe underfunding and the impact it has, the fact that people are now paying property tax but do not have access to their homes is a major problem. Will the Minister along with the Department look at the number of LIS roads that have been taken over by local authorities? One of the main problems is that once the LIS roads are done they are not bei…

I thank the Minister of State for taking this Topical Issue matter. Thousands of people lined the streets in counties Mayo and Donegal last weekend because of the sense of unfairness and unjust treatment they have been getting from this scheme. All they want is equity and fairness. They want equity, in that 90% is not sufficient to cover the costs. The big problem is the people who can least afford it are locked out of this scheme as it stands. Also, no provision has been made for families who must move out, which …

It is clear from listening to the contributions across parties that this scheme is not fit for purpose. Mayo and Donegal will not stand for being treated differently from people in another part of the country. We need an immediate review. I have seen how people have got sick and been brought to their knees because of what has happened to their houses through no fault of their own. They have been left hung out to dry. I plead with the Minister of State to do something about this. The scheme must be reviewed. It can …

Deputy Carthy can come in. We have one minute left.

I want to ask the Minister about students who have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic and who now believe they will be pushed out of SUSI for accepting the pandemic unemployment payment. Will the Minister please clear this up because it is causing huge concern?

I thank the Minister. I know he agrees it is unacceptable that students would be pushed out and denied SUSI grants because they accepted the pandemic unemployment payment. I would treat it as an exceptional needs payment. Nobody should be penalised for accepting the pandemic unemployment payment, particularly not working students who lost their jobs because of the pandemic. This is where equality comes into it. If these students were working as normal or under the employment wage subsidy scheme they would be entitl…

Would the situation of this mother be considered a change of circumstances? She has three boys on the pandemic unemployment payment who are still in college and living at home. They are in Maynooth, Dublin and Sligo. If the pandemic unemployment payment is not disregarded it will push her over the threshold and she will not be able to take out a loan for €30,000 to pay for their fees and accommodation. We must also remember that an awful lot of students have lost money due to accommodation. Will this be taken into …

I am asking the Minister to address the barriers facing students accessing graduate-entry medicine. Only approximately half of the places in medicine in the State go to students from Ireland. There has been essentially no increase in the quota of 708 Irish and other EU students who can study medicine here. In the same period, approximately 100 new places were added for more lucrative international students. I ask the Minister to fix this to allow our students to access medicine.

Every year gets more competitive for the Irish student to study medicine and, as the Minister stated, other students begin with another degree and then try to get back in and study medicine. This graduate-entry medicine route is even more dominated by the more lucrative international students. If it is possible to imagine, this is even more difficult to get into than directly from the leaving certificate. Fees are approximately €15,000 a year. That is €60,000 over four years. There are no Government supports to hel…

I thank the Minister for that. That needs to be done sooner rather than later because becoming a doctor, the Minister will agree, should not be the reserve of one class in our society. Can the Minister also provide details on the arrangement Bank of Ireland has with the universities for giving loans to graduate-entry medicine and what action will he take to allow more people to address that? We cannot have a situation where Bank of Ireland is asking that a student's guarantor needs to earn more than €50,000. It is …

Why are third level students here required to pay the highest fees in the EU? What does the Minister plan to do to address that inequality before the next academic year? I am concerned that households which are paying up to 60% of their income on rent or mortgage payments do not have the money for these huge fees to send their children to third level education.

That was a bit of a mixed answer in a sense. It is not good enough to say that we are not as bad as others. We have the highest rate in this regard in the EU. In the last decade or so, according to the Irish Universities Association, IUA, we have seen the State embark on a sustained period of disinvestment from higher education. We have seen a withdrawal of the State from higher education. The third-level institutions are being given 50% less funding per student than in 2008. That is 72% less, if we account for inf…

The Minister can dress it up all he likes, but we still have the highest fees here. We compare them with 2008. The Minister knows the situation in the North is one where we are dependent on a block grant. Please God, however, it will not be long until we have Irish unity and an all-island approach to education. I hope the Minister will agree that such an approach will serve all the students across this island, and will be one where we will not have fees and we will not be creating barriers for students going into t…

What are the Minister's plans to improve the working conditions for PhD students? PhD researchers need to have their work recognised. They deserve rights and conditions that reflect the contribution they make to education and research. The recently published general scheme of the higher education authority Bill contains no mention of a role for the reformed HEA to promote better conditions for early career researchers.

I welcome that and I thank the Minister for it. I also welcome the announcement of the additional investment from the Irish Research Council. The postgraduate stipend is increased from €16,000 to €18,500 per annum and funding for postdoctoral researchers also increased. However, the €18,500 is still below the minimum wage. The Irish Research Council does not mean all PhD researchers. Apprentices get contracts of employment and are members of unions. They are paid a percentage share of a fully qualified tradesperson…

I thank the Minister for that. The situation with precarious working conditions for those working in third level institutions is unacceptable on two fronts. First, there is the economic disadvantage and financial stress in which it puts people. It also gives the message to our students that it is okay to work in an environment where one is treated like that. We must stop it. Will the Minister, as a part of the review, put researchers and PhD students with disabilities front and centre? I ask him to consult them and…

I thank the Minister for his commitment to working on a cross-party basis on this issue. I highlight the potential around GMIT in Castlebar, next door to Mayo University Hospital. We talked earlier about the need to train more medical students, linking up with Magee campus, the New Decade, New Approach agreement, the shared island unit and the programme for Government, and the potential for training medical students across the west and the north west.

I thank the Regional Group for tabling this motion, which I wholeheartedly support. It is nothing short of disgraceful that people must still fight for water 100 years after the State was formed. The motion being debated states that "clean water and wastewater systems are essential components to grow communities" and that it is essential that we invest in "the infrastructure necessary to attract families to live, work and raise their families". It is shameful that this basic infrastructure is still denied to many i…