Third Level Fees

174. Deputy Cathy Bennett asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the amount that parents and students were expected to pay in third level fees in each of the years 2024, 2025 and 2026; and the amount they will be expected to pay in 2027. [71950/26]

I am asking this question on behalf of Deputy Bennett. It is a very simple question. What third level fees will be payable in 2027 and what were they in each year since 2024?

Under the free fees initiative, the State provides funding toward the tuition fee costs of eligible Irish and EU undergraduate students pursuing approved full-time undergraduate courses in an approved higher education institution. The State also pays the student contribution fee in full or in part, on top of the free tuition fees, on behalf of students who qualify for SUSI support under the student grant scheme. This year, 71,000 students received fee grant supports from SUSI and almost 49,000 students had their student contribution fee paid in full by SUSI as well. The programme for Government commits to reducing the student contribution fee in a financially sustainable manner over the lifetime of the Government. That commitment is intended to give further assistance to students and their families in successive years. Since coming into office last year, I have already reduced the fee by €650 on a permanent basis. Previous interventions were temporary and were not factored into the base in terms of being guaranteed year on year. Many students and parents have told me they needed certainty in order to be able to plan ahead and to understand what they would be paying each year. My changes are here to stay, are fully sustainable and are fully baked into the budget year on year. The Deputy asked what the fees were in previous years. In 2024-25, the fee was €3,000, as will be shown in any analysis or budget figures that were prepared. There was a temporary once-off intervention by way of a €1,000 discount on that net fee for qualifying students. The student contribution fee for the 2025-26 year was €2,500 because I was able to reduce it by €500 on a permanent basis. In the current year, I have managed to reduce it again by a further €150, taking it to €2,350. That change is complemented by changes to the tuition fee tax relief scheme. I have met with the Minister for Finance and he has committed to keeping the tax relief in line with the fee level in order that students get the maximum benefit from the measure.

We have just heard the perfect example of political evasion at its absolute finest. My question was very simple but the Minister could not answer it. I asked him what the fees will be next year and what they were in previous years. He started off by talking about the free fees initiative. He should not try to cod students and their families. For many families, there is no free fees initiative. Every single year, they have to pay fees. They are disguised as student contributions but let there be no mistake about it: in a household budget, they amount to fees. In 2027, the fees - or contribution, if the Minister wishes to call them that - will be €2,350. The Minister seemed unable to say this but in 2024, the fees were €2,000. For all his guff and spin, fees will be higher next year than they were in the year of the general election. When will the election commitment made by his party and by Fine Gael to abolish student fees entirely actually happen?

With respect to the Deputy, he is a fair man for the guff himself. He gives it out in large order in this Chamber on a regular basis. That is fine. It is part of the cut and thrust of political debate. However, my party made no such commitment as referred to by him. If he finds evidence that we did, he should bring it to my attention because I have never seen it, I certainly never made such a commitment and my party did not include it in our manifesto. There was no such commitment and, indeed, it will not be found in the programme for Government either because it is not there. The Deputy dismissed the free fees initiative out of hand. Nearly €1 billion is spent on free fees every year. He may be confusing that initiative with other initiatives. Tuition fees are not paid by students in this State. They are paid by the State on behalf of students to the higher education institutions. The cost for a medical student to attend college is approximately €30,000 to €40,000 and can be as high as €50,000 depending on the course. That is paid on the student's behalf by the State, and rightly so because it means there is an opportunity for students from lower-income backgrounds to avail of that education. That is available to students regardless of background because the free fees initiative is universal. On top of that, and as a separate initiative, the student contribution fee is also funded. At this stage, the majority of students are getting some or complete intervention with their fees. Only households earning above €150,000 where there is-----

I will come back to that. Significant supports have been made available.

What I ask the Minister to come back to is the simple question I asked him. We are all liable to guff from time to time, of course, but some of us are better than others at answering straight questions. It seems the Minister is simply not able to answer this particular question. He can call these charges contributions, fees or whatever he wants but the truth is that for families with students attending third level, especially where several students are attending, and who do not qualify for any of the supports the Minister outlined, this is a significant outlay. When we add the cost of student accommodation on top, it can be a very heavy burden. The parties in government promised in 2024 that student fees, which were €2,000 at that time, would be abolished over the lifetime of the Government. Instead, three years into the Government's term, fees will actually be higher in 2027. Will the Minister answer a straight question? Is it his intention to abolish student fees in the lifetime of the Government, and if so, when exactly will that happen? I ask, please, that he answer this straight question in a straight manner. Does he intend to abolish student fees, and if so, when will he do it?

The Deputy has now changed his tune. He said a few minutes ago that my party had committed to doing that. Now he has acknowledged that is not the case. He has not quite clarified that but he has changed his charge somewhat in the course of the debate. I want to be really clear on the action for which he is advocating. He talked about families with more than one student at college and what supports they should enjoy. Thanks to the initiatives I introduced in the budget, families earning up to €150,000-----

I asked the Minister whether he would abolish fees. Is the answer "Yes" or "No"?

The Deputy can talk in his own time.

This is supposed to be questions and answers, a Cheann Comhairle.

Families with a household income of up to €150,000 will now enjoy a significant intervention in their fee costs through measures I have introduced in the budget. For example, a family with a household income of €149,000, which is well above the median wage, and with three students in college at the same time, will now enjoy an intervention of up to €2,000 against the cost of fees for those three students. As we come down the income ladder, there will be even more significant interventions such that many families will not pay any fees at all and many others will pay only partial charges. We have put in place significant interventions. The Deputy is looking for the very highest income students to receive support at the cost of other students in terms of things like SUSI grants.

It is important to be clear on what is being sought and to have an honest debate.