He has done it twice now.

I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh for the important and timely question. When the question was submitted and we were preparing our answer it was in advance of the Finance Bill being published. The Bill will be published later this week but the Minister for Finance has indicated today, as have I, that parents who pay rent for their children will now be covered by the rent relief. Let us look at the various scenarios in which students might be renting. A student might rent privately, register with the Residential Tenancies…

I can only tell the Deputy those who are included because I am trying to think of various scenarios here. However, I am satisfied that the way the Finance Bill is now drafted will provide access to the rent relief tax credit for students in the four categories I outlined, namely, those living in on-campus accommodation, those renting themselves, those in the rent-a-room scheme and those renting where the tenancy is registered with the RTB but the students' parents are paying the rent for them, which I imagine is th…

I have a couple of bits and, as the Deputy suggested, we will be able to come back to some of this in later questions. The first thing is we need to do a full, proper, external review of PhD supports. I expect to be in a position to announce the details of that this week. We need to look at it root and branch, at all the elements of support, at what other countries do, at what we do well and at what we must do better. We need to be aware of the inconsistencies that exist with different levels of stipends administer…

I accept that there is always a need to do more, but the idea that the Deputy suggests, or would suggest on behalf of anybody else, that nothing was done in the budget to assist students, is manifestly untrue. Some €143 million has been allocated for cost-of-living measures for students between now and the end of the year, which is not nothing. About 95,000 students will benefit from a €1,000 reduction in fees between now and Christmas. More than 50,000 students will benefit from a bonus student grant payment on 16…

We also have record numbers of students in third level education. There are more than there have ever been in the history of the State and that has to be acknowledged. There are more students than ever before in the history of the leaving certificate getting their first choice of college course. New technological universities are opening in the regions. There are pathways between further and higher education. We have abolished the post leaving certificate, PLC, course levy, increased financial supports for apprenti…

Objectively, we are removing barriers. I am the first Minister with responsibility for higher education who has been able to stand here in 27 years and talk about fees coming down. That is what the budget did. We can have a legitimate debate about the pace of reduction and whether we can move faster, but let us not escape the context, which is that we have just delivered a budget which has reduced college fees. It is not on a once-off basis. It has permanently reduced college fees for any household earning less tha…

I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh for this question. The 2022 Revised Estimates provided for expenditure, as the Deputy said, of €765 million from the National Training Fund. While these amounts have been allocated to the various beneficiaries, the final actual expenditure for 2022 is not known as yet because we have not reached year end. The final allocation for the NTF in 2023 will be set out in the Revised Estimates. Any increase in NTF expenditure, all other things being equal and without a corresponding reduction on…

I fundamentally agree with Deputy Conway-Walsh. I ran out of time on my last answer but I fundamentally agree with the Deputy in regard to the size of the surplus. It is prudent to have a level of surplus. We would agree on that. It is imprudent to have such a large surplus. I agree on that too. The challenge for the Government, and I respectfully suggest it is also a challenge for the Opposition to show how it is done, is that any expenditure from the NTF is categorised as the equivalent of general Government expe…

We have to get this right. My colleague, the Tánaiste, indicated most recently in his speech at the IBEC annual dinner his wish, my wish and the Government’s wish to be able to use this fund, an element of the surplus of this fund, to provide an additionality when it comes to skills provision in Ireland. As I have said, on my invitation, the OECD is currently conducting a review of Ireland’s approach to skills planning and development. These and other developments will support further consideration of this issue, i…

I appreciate the concise way in which the Deputy delivered a very lengthy written question. I thank Deputy Shanahan for raising the question and for his ongoing engagement with me in regard to SETU, and particularly in regard to Waterford city and county. I look forward to visiting on Monday and engaging further with the Deputy there. The multi-campus South East Technological University, SETU, will be transformative for the south-east region. Addressing the economic and social needs of the south east is at the cent…

The people of the south east can believe us because we are delivering. The Deputy can decide whether or not to get on board with that but we are delivering. There is a technological university in the south east. Job done. The staff and the students voted for it. Veronica Campbell, the former bursar of Trinity College Dublin, is the president, and Paddy Prendergast, the former provost of Trinity College Dublin, is chairing the governing authority. It is going really well. There is an excitement in Waterford and in t…

It used to be that the Deputy did not believe that I was going to deliver the university. Now we have delivered the university and he does not believe that I will properly fund it. I will fund it.

No, it is not just a structure.

I ask the Deputy for a little degree of positivity. For the first time in the history of Waterford, people in Waterford city can get a university degree. People in Waterford county and in the south east, the Industrial Development Authority, IDA, Enterprise Ireland and even Sinn Féin, with respect to it, believe in it. The Opposition and the Government have come together on this. However, it does not work for the Deputy politically and we wish him well. I am very clear on this issue and I am fed up with being misre…

The university and business people believe it. We will not negotiate the commercial amounts on the floor of the Dáil. However, we will get on and do it. Many people told me that this Government will never deliver a university, but we have. Now those same people want to say we will not expand the footprint; we are.

I thank the Deputy for his question; it is one of the most important with which we will deal this evening and I will genuinely work with him on this issue. We have had a number of meetings with Empowering People In Care, EPIC. Marissa Ryan, its CEO, is doing great work and Rory Brown, a member of its youth council, recently spoke at the launch of the new national access plan. Before I get into my formal answer, I make the point that we have agreed to include exactly the types of students to whom the Deputy is refer…

I appreciate and acknowledge the passion. It is a serious issue and we will look into it. As the Deputy implied, it is not directly within the remit of my Department. The benefit of the national access plan, however, is that it involves other Departments on the implementation group. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, the Department of Health, the Department of Social Protection and the likes play a role in the oversight and implementation of the plan, as do stakeholders and peo…

I do not want to stray too far outside my remit as I do not have responsibility for that matter but I will be engaging with relevant Departments and Government colleagues on these issues. If we are serious about fixing access to further and higher education for people who have had experience of the care system - and we are - that will be interdependent on several other things happening across a range of Departments. I will certainly engage with colleagues and I am happy to engage further with the Deputy. He is righ…

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter on behalf of her constituent. As she is aware, as part of the budget 2023 we have secured a significant cost-of-living package for third level students, including a once-off €1,000 State financial support towards the undergraduate student contribution fee for higher education students eligible for the free fees scheme. This measure will reduce the student contribution payable by students from €3,000 to €2,000 in the current academic year. The measure applies to all student…