The Deputy did not and I am well aware of it. Students being able to demonstrate in a socially distanced and Covid-appropriate way is an important part of students highlighting issues of concern to them. I thank the Deputy for her question. I have engaged closely with student representatives on issues concerning the costs of higher education. USI will concur on that point. We have agreed to a schedule of monthly meetings. Tomorrow, I have a meeting with student union presidents from throughout the country. We are i…

I point out that in the time I have been in this role, we have seen four changes to the SUSI student grant scheme. We have seen the first increase in the postgraduate SUSI grant. We have seen the first general rise in the student support scheme that the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, and I introduced in the budget. We have seen the threshold increase so that more families qualify and the adjacency requirements reduced so that more families will qualify. I am not suggesting that is everything we need to do…

Those statistics around the European Union only hold up because the United Kingdom and, sadly, Northern Ireland are no longer in the European Union. We certainly will not implement the system that the UK and Northern Ireland has for student loans. I do not believe in them or that they work. I have yet to see a country that has implemented this successfully. I also do not like the concept because it could have an adverse impact on people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, who tend to be more risk-ave…

I thank the Deputy for raising an important and timely question. Higher education and research and further education and training, including apprenticeships, have been confirmed and reconfirmed by the Government as an essential service in the course of the pandemic. They continue, therefore, to take place on-site, consistent with the safe return plan published by my Department last June and endorsed by the Chief Medical Officer. There is no medical or public health advice from the National Public Health Emergency T…

Respectfully, the last time I took Oral Questions in the House the Deputy was asking me to increase on-site attendance and I shared that view with her. I said to her then what I will say now, albeit in a different context. Everything must be done in the context of public health and the framework we have agreed with all stakeholders, including students, their union and, crucially, the Chief Medical Officer. The return to on-campus education has gone very well, although it has not been a straight road without hiccups…

Of course I will look at such matters continually but I will not defy public health advice approach, no matter which way it goes. I will not decide on the floor of Dáil Éireann that I will move exams online because I do not control the decision and institutions are autonomous. Additionally, such a decision is not in our space, and as politicians and public representatives our role is to put in place the framework endorsed by public health. That has been working well. It is entirely correct - I do not view it as an …

The first thing we have done is change the law, not once but twice, on student accommodation and student renters. The first thing the Union of Students in Ireland asked us to do - I think the Deputy cosponsored legislation on this - was to change the rule so that a student renter could not be asked to pay four, five or six months' rent up front, which was happening. The law is now very clear. One month's rent up front and one month's deposit is the maximum amount anyone can be charged. The second thing the Union of…

In the time available to me, I will take as read the answers I have given on the immediate measures we are taking through increasing the student assistance fund and the like for day-to-day costs and the cost of living increases, which are real. The Deputy has asked me a very direct question in what I mean as to the cost rental model. A number of our higher education institutions currently hold existing lands on which purpose-built, college-owned student accommodation could be developed. In these cases, development …

I take the point about the devil being in the detail on the cost rental model and I am happy to further engage with the Deputy on that as we explore the matter with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. I am genuinely excited about the prospect that this could be a new beginning for student accommodation. On the issue of cost and affordability, I made the point that I have prioritised the additional funding my Department received into targeted supports in the first instance, such as student gran…

I thank Deputy Fitzpatrick for meeting me about this matter with other Members from Louth. I assure him that the north east will not be left behind. I would have been delighted had I received an application from the north-east institute to become a technological university. I am sure the Deputy and I share that real and palpable frustration as to why when a number of other institutes of technology came together with other institute of technologies to put together their bid, none came from DkIT. That is a frustratio…

I give the Deputy that absolute assurance but, in all honesty, this Oireachtas has not given me any legal powers to create a technological university or to compel an institute of technology to become a technological university without somebody applying for that to happen, that body being an autonomous higher education institution. However, I am delighted that Dundalk Institute of Technology has indicated in both its strategic plan and its engagement with the Higher Education Authority that it now has a clear intent…

The Deputy will have my help. He asked me what the problem is. The problem is that the institute has not applied. The truth of the matter is that it did not apply when all of the other institutes did, for whatever reason. That was the institute's choice. I am really pleased that people right across the institution, including staff, students, the governing authority and management, now want to be part of this agenda. I welcome that. I also welcome the Deputy's personal commitment and the cross-party commitment that …

I thank Deputy Dillon for the question. I also thank him for talking about technological universities and for the work we have done together. I am delighted that the technological university for the north west now has a name. It will be the Atlantic technological university and will come into being in April. I am also delighted to see advertisements being placed to find the leadership of that technological university. The student assistance fund is one of a suite of measures to support students participating in hig…

I thank the Deputy for his interest in this matter. In 2015, the HEA commissioned an independent review of the student assistance fund as part of the national plan for equity of access to higher education. The main finding of that review was a confirmation that the student assistance fund continues to be highly valued as a source of support for students. Demand remains strong. What I like about the fund is the flexibility which allows it to cater for a very diverse group of students in a variety of circumstances. T…

I thank the Deputy, and I assure him that students in the technological universities, including in the new Atlantic technological university serving Mayo, Galway, Sligo, Donegal and the north-west region, will indeed be eligible to apply. Regarding the further education sector, I am glad the Deputy raised this matter, because we have made two significant changes to support students in further education and training. In the last budget, we abolished the post-leaving certificate, PLC, course levy. A €200 charge had b…

I thank Deputy Dillon for this important and timely question. The Speak Out tool, launched last month, as the Deputy said, is an online, anonymous reporting tool for incidents of bullying, harassment, discrimination, assault, sexual harassment and sexual assault, led by the PCHEI group, with funding provided by my Department. Speak Out allows staff and students to report harassment across all equality grounds, including sexual misconduct and racial discrimination. The platform is currently available in the higher e…

I am really pleased by the progress being made in the sector. I thank the staff and student leaders in the sector for all the work that is taking place on the issue of consent and sexual harassment and ensuring that good reporting tools are in place in this regard. Good work had been done in respect of developing a national framework, but national frameworks are not enough. Institutions must own the framework and they must determine what they are going to do on their campuses to keep their staff and students safe. …

It very much is, and, as the Deputy said, it is so important that the tool uses affirmative language as well, because this is an anonymous reporting tool. It is based on similar tools used in higher education institutions in the United Kingdom. As a result of anonymity, the tool uses affirmative language, such as “perpetrator”, to assure those speaking out that we believe them, and that we stand with them. Through this trauma-informed lens, it has been ensured that the tool will be therapeutically beneficial to tho…

I thank Deputy Moynihan for his question and for his regular engagement with myself and my office on the issue of student supports and the need to do better, reform and overhaul the student grant system. I am happy to give him an update on the review of the SUSI student grant scheme. This was a very important commitment in the programme for Government, which will help shape decision-making on how we support students over the years to come. I thank the Deputy for acknowledging that there have been some changes since…

I thank the Deputy. I am pleased to hear that the changes we made in the last budget will have such a positive impact for many of his constituents. We would like to do more and build on that in future budgets as well. I am at a slight disadvantage because I have not yet received the outcome of the review. However, the terms of reference are quite instructive in terms of what we would like to see happen as a Government. The terms of reference have asked that the review: examine the maintenance grant values and their…