I thank the Deputy for this important and timely question. The Government has committed to planning for a significant increase in on-site attendance in the tertiary education sector in the next academic year. Following intensive consultation with sectoral stakeholders, staff, student representatives and university management, I published A Safe Return: Plan for a Safe Return to on-site Further and Higher Education and Research in 2021/22, the central tenets of which are the protection of and provision of supports t…

I do not disagree with anything that the Deputy has said. I have asked institutions to continue doing what many of them already do, which is to set aside a certain amount of on-campus accommodation for first-year students. They did that last year and it was helpful. We recently passed legislation which has done two things to help students with student accommodation. It was largely based on the USI Bill. It makes sure that students can no longer be asked for months of rent upfront, which was a real barrier. It chang…

The Deputy makes a fair point. It is up to each institution to consider reserving some accommodation for first-year students. The rationale for that is that they will not know what college they are going to or what course they will be doing until well after second, third and fourth years know what they are returning to because of the delay with leaving certificate results. This year, we have tried to provide as much certainty and clarity as we can much earlier than we were able to last year. Last year, these matter…

I thank the Deputy for this important question. The Government has worked intensively with representatives of staff, students and the management of institutions, as well as the Chief Medical Officer, to devise and publish a plan that shows how we will get our students safely back to college campuses, whether in further or higher education. We have said what people can expect at a minimum. I outlined to the Deputy's colleague, Deputy Conway-Walsh, the concept of treating a college in the same way a town or village w…

I fully agree that there has been far too much faffing around regarding antigen testing. As the Minister with responsibility for research and science, I would say that. We need to try everything possible to get people's lives back on track. Roughly speaking, and going on my memory, four institutions - Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, National University of Ireland Galway and University College Cork - are leading on this pilot project. An opportunity to partake will be given to 8,000 staff and stud…

I am very proud that we live in a country where we have provided such significant income support to all people who lost jobs, including students. Some of the commentary, certainly not from Deputy Conway-Walsh but from some elements in recent weeks and months, suggesting it was inappropriate and that students should not be claiming the pandemic unemployment payment shows a huge lack of understanding of the impact this pandemic has had on young people and people of all ages. As Deputy Conway-Walsh is aware, the stude…

So far, what we are seeing is a significant number of applicants being granted the SUSI grants. We are monitoring this on a weekly basis and we will continue to monitor it. I will reflect on the point the Deputy has made on the holiday earnings disregard. There may be something in it should the need arise as we see the system develop. We have to have a consistency of approach in terms of one social welfare payment with another. Otherwise, there would be a gross unfairness to students who receive other social welfar…

I am satisfied, without getting into the individual case as I do not have all of the details, that the legislation and regulations allow for a change of circumstance where students or families were receiving, to use the Deputy's phrase, an exceptional payment for a period of time during the pandemic and, due to work resuming or changes, they are no longer receiving that payment. They need to be able to tell SUSI and SUSI needs to be able to take it into consideration. I want the Deputy to know we monitor on a weekl…

I thank Deputies Ó Ríordáin and Nash for the question. As Deputy Ó Ríordáin said, it gives me an opportunity to expand further on the previous question. There is a holiday earnings disregard under SUSI of €4,500 in respect of income earned by students outside of term time, for example, the summer period and the Christmas season. Importantly, this remains available to all SUSI applicants in respect of such earnings. Students and others may decide to avail of work over the summer period and the income disregard remai…

First, we should not say we are standing over a system that we are not yet sure is as the Deputy describes. I agree that this is about every individual student and I do not intend to be in any way dismissive in relation to that. However, I also need to be conscious of anything that I do being legal, equitable and consistent with that approach of equity of access. For example, if I was to include a PUP payment as an income disregard, why would the Deputy not wish me to include a lone parent's payment as an income di…

That is a fair question. At present, we are monitoring it on a weekly basis. The figure I gave the House of 28,500 applications having been assessed and 26,000 being deemed eligible is a very high rate of eligibility for SUSI so far which reflects the reality we will see this year that most households' incomes are gone down and not up. This idea - the Deputy is not putting it forward - that families will ultimately end up being better off overall because of being on social welfare for the year will not turn out to …

I am grateful to the Deputy for bringing this up because it is an issue I have been engaging on quite a bit. I have met a number of students, either studying medicine as graduate entrants or considering doing that. I am concerned because the argument they would put forward to me is that there is benefit both to the health service and to them as future doctors in having undertaken a degree, perhaps, in the first instance, that is not in medicine. For example, I met a young man recently who decided to do a science de…

As a former Minister for Health, I think diversity in terms of the backgrounds of our healthcare professionals, particularly our medical professionals, is a good thing and would assist in the delivery of health services as well. What are we doing in relation to this? The first thing I said to the Deputy is we are already providing a direct subsidy of fees for graduate-entry medicine in a way that we are not for many other areas. The second area is that at present they cannot apply for SUSI. This is a big ask of the…

I cannot speak in regard to the banks, but I take the point the Deputy makes. It could well be a barrier for many people in accessing financial assistance. I can examine how we can provide greater financial assistance. I have already pointed out that the student assistance fund is a more immediate-term mechanism. The first of two other areas I want to examine is SUSI, in the context of the review, and whether there is something we can do there to help. Second, we are already providing a degree of subsidised fees to…

I thank Deputy Collins for the question. My Department is strongly committed to supporting the mental health of the population through the provision of graduates with the key competencies and skills to be effective in the health workforce and to support a range of clinical teams in our health services. My Department understands there is a long-standing arrangement in place under which the HSE and former health boards recruit trainee clinical psychologists and sponsor their training in order to encourage employment …

I agree 100% with the Deputy. I was answering her specific question on how one matter she raised does not fall under the remit of my Department. That is not in any way shirking the broader issue. I want to assure the Deputy that one of the roles my Department is playing is engaging with the workforce planning sections of other relevant Departments. For example, we are in discussions with the Department of Health about whether we can provide more training places for nurses and doctors, what it needs to do regarding …

I thank the Deputy. When she said that we need to map it out, she could not be more correct. If we want to implement things like Sláintecare or any Government strategy to improve public services, a major part of that conversation has to involve how many young and not so young people need to be trained to work in these areas. I agree with the Deputy on that and there is a lot of work going on in that regard. I note the campaign being run by the Psychological Society of Ireland and USI regarding the matter she has ra…

I am delighted the Deputy has raised this issue. I note his interest in it. This is a major priority for me and the entire Government. The Cabinet committee on education recently had a discussion about this very matter. I have undertaken to do two things between now and September, in conjunction with a number of Government colleagues, in particular the Ministers of State, Deputies Josepha Madigan and Anne Rabbitte. The first thing I want to do is to examine the transition planning for students with disabilities whe…

I promise the Deputy we will do this. I met representatives from Down Syndrome Ireland recently. I talked to parents who said to me that, in some cases, not only are they not seeing their children progress when they leave school, which is the wish all parents have for their children, but are actually seeing them regress. What a horrific thing for parents to have to say, that at the time they see other children going to college, training and all these exciting things, they worry about their children going backwards …

I assure Deputy Tully my Department is committed to supporting the mental health of the population through the provision of graduates with the key competencies and skills required to be effective in the health workforce and to support a range of clinical teams, including the very important issue she highlights regarding supporting people with eating disorders. Planning and decision-making for the expansion of those training places is a matter for the Department of Health, the HSE and the College of Psychiatrists of…