Francis Noel Duffy (Dublin South West, Green Party)
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658. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of further reducing third level fees to €1,000 in 2024-2025, and subsequently abolish these fees in 2025-2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22577/24]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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Under the Free Fees Initiative (FFI), the State provides funding toward the tuition fee costs of eligible full time undergraduate higher education students with students paying the student contribution of up to €3,000 per annum.

The State pays the student contribution (in full or part) on behalf of students who qualify under the student grant scheme administered by SUSI. In addition to this, a new student contribution grant of €500 was introduced last year for applicants whose income was below €100,000. This is a permanent reduction to the student contribution costs for qualifying students.

The data to allow for the costing of a €1,000 reduction in 2024/25 is not yet available. However, it is anticipated that the estimated costs of applying a student contribution reduction in 2024/25 would be of a similar magnitude to that in 2023/24.

The estimated costs for 2024/25 are as follows:

- €91.9 million to reduce the Student Contribution by €1,000;

- €183.8 million to reduce the Student Contribution by €2,000; and

- €254.7 million to remove the Student Contribution.

Please note that these figures are the estimated net cost to the State after adjusting for savings that would accrue on the student grant scheme. The figures may change as more up to date data becomes available.