I wish to raise some concerns I have around the Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, grant scheme for third level students. I do this, however, while acknowledging the good work the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, has done and the fact he has initiated some much-needed reform in this area, particularly around the regulations to increase the maintenance grant by €200 and to increase the income threshold for the standard rate of grant by €1,000. That is certainly welcome, but my concern relates specifically to the fact that despite the steering group review of the SUSI scheme and the Minister's action, the income threshold for student holiday earnings has remained capped at the totally unacceptable level of €4,500.

I raised the need to increase this earnings limit as part of my submission to the steering group last March. I was hopeful, along with others, such as the Union of Students in Ireland, this limit would be changed. Indeed, the last time the level of holiday earnings income was increased was in 2016, when the cap rose from €3,809 to €4,500. Since that time, students and the majority of people in this State, have faced massive and unsustainable levels of rent hikes, travel expenses and food price increases yet, despite all of this, the cap on earnings students can generate for themselves remains at the same level almost seven years on. That is totally unacceptable. The fact it did not change as part of the recent regulations the Minister, Deputy Harris, signed off on was certainly a lost opportunity and one that needs to be addressed and looked at again.

I asked the Minister, in a recent parliamentary question following his announcement, if he would reconsider the decision to leave the cap at €4,500 for student holiday earnings. He ruled this out by replying, "Any .. further increase [to the holiday earnings] threshold must be considered in the context of not adversely impacting upon retention rates [and] the student’s ability to primarily focus on successfully completing his [or] her studies." I respectfully suggest it is precisely this rigid inflexibility around student earnings that is creating the difficulties in retention and the ability of students to successfully complete their courses. In other words, a cap that is apparently designed to keep students in college or third level is now acting as a direct disincentive and a barrier to graduation. This is also having an impact on the retail and hospitality sectors, which cannot source students to do work because students cannot take on the number of hours they need.

I specifically request that the Government and the Minister immediately re-examine section 22(5)(b) of the Student Grant Scheme 2021 with a view to increasing the maximum earning caps from €4,500, even if that occurs on an incremental level equivalent to the increase that took place in 2016.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. As she said, she has made a submission in respect of it to the group looking at reform of the SUSI scheme. As she said, at the last budget, the Government took a number of decisions to improve the student grant scheme, in particular the increase to all student grant maintenance payments, including the special rate of grant of €200 per year, which will benefit all students entitled to receive a maintenance grant. The income threshold to qualify for the standard rate of student grant increased to €1,000 and the qualifying distance criterion, which is an important one, for students to qualify for the non-adjacent rate of grant will be reduced from 45 km to 30 km. These were all positive measures the Government took on the last occasion. It also provided additional funding to the student assistance fund for students eligible for higher education institutions who were experiencing financial difficulties in college. That fund can be very useful to students who are in particular difficulties financially, in supporting students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds and in providing emergency financial support. In the 2021-22 academic year, that fund is now €18.5 million, which is quite substantial.

The Exchequer contributes approximately €340 million to meeting tuition fee costs of eligible undergraduate students in higher education and spends €365 million on student grant supports via SUSI. In addition, the Exchequer pays the student contribution of €3,000 per annum, in full or part, for circa 66,000 students. That said, we are anxious to do more, especially on the student support side and the SUSI grant size. We will, in the context of the next budget, examine what more can be done to improve access to student grants and the various criteria governing the SUSI scheme. We will examine some of the suggestions the Deputy made in the context of the Estimates for the subsequent academic year beyond the next budget. That is the context in which this will be looked at.

The Deputy made reasonable points. On what the Minister, Deputy Harris, said, there is a balance to be struck, to be fair, in maintaining focus on study and so on.

Equally, however, the threshold is perhaps an area that can be examined into the future in terms of the earnings cap of €4,500. We will certainly examine that.

The real problem is that the cap of €4,500 relating to student earnings is extremely low. There is inflation and people are struggling to cope with the cost of living. Students are no different. We have spiralling rent costs, as I have already outlined. It would make sense to do something that would act as an incentive to ensure that we invest in students in this country and that there would not be a situation whereby they are emigrating because they are being forced to leave education here. Unfortunately, the student earning cap is a barrier that forces many students out of third level education because they just cannot pay for accommodation or meet different cost-of-living requirements. I ask that perhaps this be looked at. We could increase it incrementally over time. That could be done or started in budget 2023. I accept that it will not be possible to increase it to the rate we would like it to be at all at once. However, it needs to be seriously considered in the context of budget 2023, particularly as we are failing our students. Our brightest and best are being forced to drop out of education.

There is significant investment in third level education by the Government. Participation rates continue to increase. We have perhaps one of the highest participation rates in third level education across the European Union and we have one of the highest completion rates for second level.

The first priority has to be to make sure that our third level institutions have adequate core funding to ensure a quality education for all those who access third level. There is a gap there, which was shown in the recent report the Minister received. There is a significant gap in terms of what the universities and the institutes of technology require. We need to narrow that gap in terms of core funding in our third level institutions.

Second, we need to reform the student grant scheme, as we can and if resources permit, in the context of ensuring access, especially for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. In particular, postgraduate education needs to be made more accessible from a cost perspective.