This is a very serious issue, which I take on board. It is one I am keen to progress. It is governed by the national access plan for higher education 2022-28 which sets out the ambition for an inclusive and diverse higher education sector. An important component of that plan is its recognition and naming of additional priority groups which are considered marginalised or disadvantaged. This includes students who are c…
TDs / James Lawless
James Lawless
Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
30
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
114,588
words spoken in the chamber
114,547 as a minister, 41 as a TD
360
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
19
topics asked about
Across 11 departments
From the Dáil chamber only: committee meetings are not in this archive.
What they ask about
The subject headings the Oireachtas filed their questions under.
Who they ask
The departments their questions were addressed to.
Month by month
Low months are usually recesses, when the Dáil does not sit. The archive runs to 22 October 2026.
Questions asked 30 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 440 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 13 | 2 |
| February 2025 | 8 | 9 |
| March 2025 | 3 | 54 |
| April 2025 | 0 | 15 |
| May 2025 | 0 | 35 |
| June 2025 | 0 | 9 |
| July 2025 | 2 | 60 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| October 2025 | 0 | 44 |
| November 2025 | 0 | 1 |
| December 2025 | 0 | 44 |
| January 2026 | 0 | 40 |
| February 2026 | 1 | 1 |
| March 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| April 2026 | 2 | 39 |
| May 2026 | 0 | 42 |
| June 2026 | 0 | 1 |
| July 2026 | 0 | 40 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 1 | 0 |
| October 2026 | 0 | 4 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 379 contributions in the regular slots, such as Leaders' Questions and Priority Questions. Speech from the chair is not counted.
Asked about similar topics
Not enough questions on record to compare.
Party, constituency and offices
- constituency Kildare North 29 November 2024 to now
- party Fianna Fáil 29 November 2024 to now
- office Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science 23 January 2025 to now
I do not disagree with any of that. That is why my Department is rolling out multiple diverse and more flexible pathways and financial supports and also non-financial supports. I spoke about the variety of other grant aids and the maintenance grant and how various social protection payments are disregarded from those grants to ensure there is no loss of income for people who take up a place. In addition, on the non-f…
I will not repeat myself but all the measures I introduced in terms of flexibility, financial supports, non-traditional routes to education and geographically distributed access points, including those close to the learner's home, will contribute to and support that endeavour. I hope they are already assisting learners.
Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta Ó Snodaigh agus leis an gCathaoirleach Gníomhach as ucht na ceiste seo. Freagróidh mé i nGaeilge í, ach ós rud é nach bhfuil mo chuid Gaeilge chomh láidir le Gaeilge an Teachta Ó Snodaigh, rud a bhfuilim ag obair go dian air chun feabhas a chur air, freagróidh mé na ceisteanna forlíontacha i mBéarla agus cuirfidh mé na freagraí ar aghaidh chuig an Teachta i nGaeilge ina dhiaidh sin.
…
An bhfuil mé thar am? Ceart go leor.
Gabh mo leithscéal as Béarla a labhairt sa supplementary but I must do so for the sake of the accuracy of the reply. My Gaeilge is not quite as líofa as an Teachta Ó Snodaigh's, although I am ag foghlaim mo Ghaeilge arís gach lá.
I completely agree with the Deputy about the 5,000 students coming through and the need for provision to match that at every level of the system. Given the increased interest agus an méid s…
Cinnte. Cloisim everything the Deputy says. Táim very much aware of the issues that he raises. There is a lot of sense there and I will take that on board.
Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta. I thank the Deputy for his kind words and equally offer him comhghairdeas on his election. It is good to see him here representing Kildare North.
With regard to the student accommodation in Maynooth University, at the outset I should say again that I fully appreciate the importance, and am committed to the provision, of high-quality, affordable, multioption student accommodation bec…
I fully agree and share the Deputy's ambition for Maynooth. For that reason, I immediately made inquiries about progressing that project when I took office. A total of 116 student beds will come on stream this year in Maynooth. The university will be first to come out of that programme. I am also meeting the university president, Professor Eeva Leinonen, tomorrow. I will be visiting Maynooth for an event tomorrow, wh…
I will respond in reverse order, taking Deputy Conway-Walsh's points first. I am not sure I accept that there is a line of student accommodation strategies from here to Mayo. Student accommodation was not a government function until very recently, when it came into my Department. It is an easy thing to throw out in a debate but I do not know how accurate it is.
I presume the Deputy will agree that we need to reduce …
Indeed. I am actively engaged with the university and will be there again as soon as tomorrow. I hope there will be ongoing engagement into the future.
I am aware of the Deputy's ongoing advocacy for all things Dundalk, and, indeed, for Louth. We have discussed her interest in this matter previously, most recently when I attended the opening of the new FET centre in Dundalk, which involved a very significant Government commitment of almost €30 million in the education space for the region. I was delighted to open the centre, along with Deputy McGreehan and other col…
Regarding the policy framework, I do not foresee any blockage. However, there is a technical difficulty, which is why DkIT has not already been subsumed. The Technological Universities Act 2018 provided that two or more institutes of technology could jointly seek technological university designation through a process. At that time, a number of applications were invited. DkIT's governing body did not pursue that optio…
As I said, I have had an informal meeting with the president of DkIT. I have studied the situation and am very familiar with it. DkIT is something of an outlier in that most of the ITs have been assimilated at this stage. The direction of travel is to have stronger collaborations in order to achieve a sum that is greater than the parts. That is already being done very successfully in many of the TUs around the countr…
As the Deputy correctly noted, the European directive on the mutual recognition of professional qualifications ceased to have general applicability to UK award holders post Brexit, that is, after December 2020. Qualifications from the UK were automatically recognised during the transitional period, which ran from 1 February to 31 December 2020. If a qualification was recognised during that time, the professional can …
I thank the Deputy. On her last point about the constituent's query, if she wants to send that to my office I will happily take a look at the details of it. I will say, based on prior knowledge before I was ever a Minister in this Department, the Teaching Council has a particular set of requirements. Somebody even within the State may come a cropper - the Deputy mentioned, I think, philosophy or some of the courses. …
On the Deputy's Teaching Council case, I will take the details away but it is not uncommon, unfortunately, that people have different levels of accreditation or recognition within the system, notwithstanding the Teaching Council registration. I am not going to make any comment on the individual's situation. I do not know but if it is of any assistance, I have come across a case in my own constituency work in the past…
For which professions?
I think we can because my own sister is a doctor who qualified in Australia and returned to Ireland and is now practising. It is evidently happening, from personal experience. On the wider arrangement, I recently spent time in India on a St. Patrick's Day trade mission. I was engaged on the reciprocal arrangements there, of which there are many. We have a reciprocal arrangement with multiple states around the world. …
I thank Deputy Kenny, and I will treat with the programme for Government commitments and the rest later. I would be interested to know whether the Deputy agreed with the rest of my comments in that article because I did talk about targeted supports. I talked about addressing the cost of education and improving access to education. I talked about the existing support schemes and whether they should be widened or revis…
I thank the Deputy. We are in a new Government; I am a new Minister. We have had an election. The outworking of that election is a coalition Government. Not every policy of every party is going to be fulfilled. No party won a majority.
Yes, the programme for Government will be honoured. The programme for Government commits to a reduction in the student contribution fee in a financially sustainable way, which I will do, of course. I am not going to renege on a programme for Government commitment. I am going to follow it fully but how do we do that? Is it abolition, as Deputy Boyd Barrett argues for? That is €1.5 billion every Government term. How ma…
Donogh O'Malley or many others could be referenced in this debate. My party has always prized education and put it to the fore. Education is the bridge to all that we do as an economy and subsequently as a society because it is the private enterprise, created by a successful education system, that creates the public good and the resources that we then use to support the public good. Deputy Kenny touched on the many c…
I thank both Deputies for raising this very important issue. I am glad to have the opportunity to address the House on the matter. I am aware of the media reports being referred to by the Deputies. I am extremely concerned about the issue itself and about the wider issue it spotlights, that of women’s safety on university campuses. This is a matter of critical importance. As I said, I am glad to have the opportunity …
I thank Deputy Farrell for acknowledging the work that is ongoing. This is a cross-party issue; I do not believe it is a political issue at all. I appreciate her approach to this and I share and reciprocate that.
There are several plans in place, which we have spoken about. Some of those are due to expire in the next year or two but they are typically incremental and we continue to grow and implement them. Insofar a…