The Minister's Government is all over the place on student fees. We have had the Minister for higher education, Deputy Lawless, clearly state on Sunday that without a cost-of-living package in the budget, college fees will go up by €1,000 in September. His position was then backed up by the Taoiseach. Let us clear up this mess today. I have just one simple question for the Minister and it is the same question that has been anxiously asked at kitchen tables all over the country. When students get their bill in September, how much will they be asked to pay? Will it be €2,000 or €3,000? Students and their families need an answer to that question today. It is the only question I have for the Minister.

The brevity of the Deputy's question gives me a moment to outline what Government is already doing to help with student accommodation-----

One question. One answer.

-----and to make a difference to what we know is a huge cost for many families. The Government is clear in recognising education, particularly higher and further education, allows students to fulfil their potential and plays a vital role in the economic development of our country in creating jobs and culture that is the heart of the progress Ireland is making.

Let me outline the supports we are already providing and what we are already doing to respond to the need we know is there.

We heard that yesterday and the day before that.

Quiet, please.

At present, with the support the Government has made available through the Minister, Deputy Lawless, as well as the work of this Government and the previous one, one in three students did not pay a student contribution. At present, half of students, through the SUSI scheme available, are supported in costs for becoming students, which we know are difficult. The Government has adjusted the standard rate income threshold by 15% to ensure more families and students are in a position to get the help they need.

Is it €2,000 or €3,000?

Today, households with an income of up to €64,000 do not pay a student contribution. For those families who have more family members or a higher number of children, that ceiling is higher again. For postgraduate education, maintenance grants have been fully restored and a SUSI support is now available for the first time for those in hybrid or part-time education. That is what the Government has done and is already in place as we recognise the great challenge many families and students face with the cost of education, which we know is high. Those are the supports in place.

How have we been able to do this? We have been able to do this for two reasons. First, it is due to the hard work of the Irish people and the contribution they make to our economy that, in turn, creates the resources we are in a position to spend. Second, budget by budget, the Government has put in place measures we believe we can sustain and are affordable which can accompany all the other things we need to do in higher and further education for students. The capital investment the Minister, Deputy Lawless, announced several days ago regarding additional student facilities will bring more facilities for a group of universities. Only a week ago, the funding in place to help improve the quality of education students receive resulted in many Irish universities moving up the world league ratings regarding their academic performance.

Budget by budget, we make changes we believe are affordable which recognise the challenges there. That is why we will do what we normally do in the approaching budget. We will put in place measures, including those to deal with the cost of becoming a student and the challenge many families face, we know are affordable, can be funded and can be built upon in the years ahead. I, along with the Minister, Deputy Lawless, and the Minister for public expenditure and reform, Deputy Chambers, are very clear on what that objective is. We are very clear that the temporary measures in place when inflation was so high need to be looked at as well as at how we can put in place other measures that can make a difference to something we know is an acute difficulty for so many. So many are already receiving support which we know is needed.

So, it is going to be €3,000.

The Deputy's question may have been brief-----

Is it €2,000 or €3,000?

No answer.

-----but the answer to it is longer in outlining the supports and difference we already make and want to build upon.

The Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Minister for higher education, the Minister for public expenditure and now the Minister for Finance cannot answer the simplest question that will have a life-defining impact on many students who are having conversations today, which will impact the rest of their lives, on whether they can travel to university or college or whether they must find somewhere more local and whether they will be able to afford a place to rent or whether they will have to commute. They do not want to hear what politicians are planning to do at some point in the future. I could stand up here and talk about how Sinn Féin does not want to just keep fees at €2,000 but wants to abolish them, but that will not answer the question being asked today. I will ask the same question that has been put to the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and successive Ministers all week one more time. Will fees be €2,000, as they were last year, or will they be higher? Will the Minister please show people some common decency and come down from his ivory tower and answer that question? People need to know and they need to know today.

Hear, hear.

It is exactly because this issue is life-defining for so many that Government already has supports in place.

Answer the question, please, Minister.

Is it €2,000 or €3,000?

Of course, Sinn Féin will never acknowledge this in any contribution it makes. The difference between those of us who sit over here and Deputy Carthy is that we are interested in solutions rather than sound bites.

They will not answer any questions.

We are interested in action that will make a difference-----

Answer the question. What is your solution?

-----rather than the Deputy's attempt at action on the issue of the day.

Is it €2,000 or €3,000?

It is a multiple-choice question.

The answer to this question-----

You will not answer the question.

-----is the same answer that has been given at every other point in recent years. As this is such an important issue, it must be decided budget by budget-----

The answer was given by the Minister for higher education, who said fees are going up.

In the engagement every Minister has with the rest of Government and the Minister for public expenditure, the progress and supports in place recognise this is not only something that will be life-defining in a positive way but will also bring with it costs.

So you do not know.

What Government wants to do is help in a permanent way and we will outline our answer to that serious question, as we will to many others, when the budget is completed.

Multiple choice, Minister. Is it €2,000 or €3,000?

They are going to college in September. The budget is not until October.

When will the Government get its act together and level with parents and students? It has been five days since the higher education Minister took to the airways and dropped the bombshell that parents and students will have to find another €1,000 to fund college before September. He did not try to sugar-coat that news; it was quite the opposite. He said, "All of us in any walk of life have to play the hands we are dealt." It was utterly galling and incredibly tone deaf; a member of Government actively stacking the deck against students and families, essentially telling them to suck it up - that is what he said - and play the bum hand they have been dealt.

Elaine is one parent who is trying her best to play the hand she was dealt. She has one daughter going to college and another starting in September. She has already told her children they cannot go to college in Dublin because accommodation is too expensive and now she is worried about how she will cover student fees, which are increasing for her from €2,000 to €6,000. Elaine told “Liveline” that she and her family went on a foreign holiday recently. It was the third time they have been abroad in 22 years and now she really regrets that decision because she does not know if she can afford to send her children to college.

There are thousands of families all over the country in exactly the same boat that Elaine is in. They have built family budgets on commitments given by the Minister and his colleagues. They believed Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael when they promised to reduce fees during the election. They believed the promises in the programme for Government that they would reduce college fees and they have been betrayed. They have learned that this Government cannot be trusted and that its promises are not worth the paper they are written on.

Students and families have been led down the garden path by this Government and they are absolutely sick of its games. I am astonished that the Minister thinks it is okay to tell families, “Wait until the budget and we will clarify matters for you.” That is four months away. Students and families cannot budget like that. They need to make plans now. They do not have a grand or three down the back of the sofa that they can easily pull out. They will need to scrimp and save and sacrifice to cover this increase. Does the Minister not understand that? Does he not get that?

This Government promised to reduce college fees and the Minister should have no problem today in clarifying whether it is going to keep to the commitment that it made. Will the Minister tell Elaine and all of those other parents out there whether or not they will see an increase in college fees come September? Will they be required to pay €2,000 or €3,000?

First, I want to deal with the different language and points that the Deputy has made before I come to the really important issue of Elaine, her children and her children's future. For the Deputy to use language such as “stacking the deck against students” does no justice to the seriousness of this cause and demeans the need for serious debate regarding important decisions that this country has to make. When the Deputy suggests that the Minister for higher and further education is looking to make decisions that disadvantage students, that he is looking to make decisions that worsen the prospect of students, not only do I know that the Deputy really does not believe that, but I know that, by making that charge, she devalues the serious issue she is raising in the debate. What the Minister, Deputy Lawless, is seeking to do, and what he will do with support from the Government, is look at how we make progress on the programme for Government, how we can deal with issues of affordability and how we can make progress on the affordability issues in higher and further education while dealing with all of the other important issues that Elaine and the rest of the country want to see us make progress on.

On the broad issue that the Deputy is raising on affordability, let me again state what we do. It is important to acknowledge what is there before we look at how it can be improved. It is important that even if these supports are not available to Elaine, they are available to other people. They are available to other citizens because we recognise the importance of the affordability of higher and further education and we are committed to looking at how that can be improved. The reality is that, as the Deputy puts that question to me today, 143,000 students and their families benefit from free fees. They benefit from that because they deserve to benefit from it. We know that for those 143,000 families, there are students who might not otherwise be able to go to college and benefit from the ability to have their prospects reshaped by going to higher and further education and studying further. The reality is that 60,000 students at the moment benefit from lower forms of student contribution, again, because they deserve to. The reality is that, today, 80,000 of our student population are benefiting from either no fees at all, because of the various schemes that are in place, or partial fees.

All of that is in place because of our desire and the commitment we have to ensure that for Elaine, and for all the other families across the country for whom affordability is an issue, there are supports in place to help. What we will be doing, as we move to the necessity of having more normal budgets in place year by year, is looking at how we can make progress, which we will, on the affordability and quality of, and access to, higher and further education. That is what the Government will do, and we will work with the Minister, Deputy Lawless, and the rest of the Government to make progress on that.

No answer.

The Minister is clearly not listening to what I am saying and, what is worse, he is clearly not listening to what parents and students are saying at the moment. They believed the Government when it said in the programme for Government that it would continue to reduce student fees. They believed it when it said that. It could not be any simpler. The question is this. Is the Government going to keep its promise or is it going to break its promise? That is the question for the Minister. Will parents be paying €2,000 in September or will they be paying €3,000? Do not answer me. Answer all of the parents out there who are asking that question. At least give them the respect of giving them that information so they can plan their budgets for September.

It is because of my respect for those families that it is important to give a clear and honest answer. It is important to recognise that those families also have other needs and issues that they want our country to make progress on. In order for us to make progress on those collectively, we have to make decisions as part of the budget process so we can ensure that the changes we make are affordable and sustainable and can be built upon in the years ahead. The families the Deputy is raising are the same families who engage with me, the same families who are contacting Deputies on the Government benches-----

The Minister is still not giving them an answer.

-----not only with questions on this but on many other priorities they want to see the Government make progress on. It is what we have done each year. We will need to do that now in the context of having normal budgets in a world that is becoming more uncertain and complex. We will need to look at how we can make improvements, budget by budget. That is why, as has always been the case, we will be in a position to give a clear answer to that when our budgetary work is done, and to respond to all of the needs that are there within our society in addition to this critical need of the affordability of education.