“Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if pandemic unemployment payments will be assessed as reckonable income for special rates of SUSI grants in 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 10 February]
“Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his attention had been drawn to the taxable nature of the €250 SUSI rebate given in November 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 3 February]
“Minister Simon Harris was asked by Clare TD Michael McNamara on an online forum whether or not he planned to reduce college fees in the wake of Covid-19. Minister Harris did not directly respond with an explicit binary response in relation to plans of the Department of Education and Skills to formally reduce college tuition fees on a national basis …” (more)
[Eve Moore, College Tribune, 27 January]
“Michael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if third level students who did not qualify for free fees will receive a refund of their student contribution fees in view of the fact that the majority of students have been forced to move to online learning since the start of the academic year due to Covid-19 restrictions; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 20 January]
“Student budgets, like the rest of the world, have been thrown upside down by the pandemic. For some, the costs of living have increased because they’re out of work, still paying rent and paying higher broadband, heat and electricity bills as a result of working at home …” (more)
[Peter McGuire, Irish Times, 12 January]
“Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris TD has confirmed that almost 71,000 students will receive an additional €250 in their student grant payment starting today (Thursday). As part of Budget 2021, Minister Harris secured a €250 payment to all full-time EU students in publicly-funded higher education institutions to acknowledge the impact this pandemic has had on third-level students …” (more)
[gov.ie, 17 December]
“Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when students who do not avail of the SUSI grant will receive the €250 Covid-19 payment; when arrangements for payment to students who do not avail of SUSI will be finalised; and if this cohort of students will receive it before Christmas …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 16 December]
“Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide additional information on the €20 million in budget 2021 for SUSI that will see the funding returned to 2019 levels; the projections on demand upon which this is based; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil debates, 15 December]
“Annie Hoey (Labour): I am raising the need to address the issue around higher education funding being potentially lost to students who withdraw from their courses and the knock-on consequences that this will have not only for free fees – a term I use lightly – but also for their access to Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, grants …” (more)
[Seanad debates, 15 December]
“Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris TD has announced Government approval to conduct a review of the Student Grant Scheme administered by SUSI. The review’s terms of reference include examining the value of the maintenance grants and income thresholds, the availability of grants for part-time students, adjacent and non-adjacent rates, supports for postgraduates and how Ireland compares against other jurisdictions …” (more)
[gov.ie, 14 December]
“A review of the student grant scheme for third-level students has been approved by the Cabinet, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris, has said. The terms of reference for the review include examining the value of the maintenance grants and the income thresholds, the availability of grants for part-time students, supports for postgraduates and how Ireland compares against other jurisdictions …” (more)
[Colm Keena, Irish Times, 14 December]
“Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the effect Covid-19 pandemic unemployment payments will have on the entitlement of third level students to student grants; if it is planned to make changes to the income assessment process for such students; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 26 November]
“Ireland’s higher education system has been engulfed with crises for over a decade now. Students are up against countless challenges to get into and stay in college and the situation is constantly deteriorating further. Students and their struggles are not highlighted enough in the media. It is barbaric that the fourth wealthiest country in the EU somehow can’t scrounge enough money together to pay student contribution fees …” (more)
[Emma Nevin, The College View, 25 November]
“The number of students in direct provision who will qualify for the Susi grant for third level education has increased five-fold after Government changes to qualifying criteria. Last year just five students qualified for Susi (Student Universal Support Ireland) grants for either fees or maintenance or both but 25 students have qualified in the 2020/2021 academic year following a review of the support scheme …” (more)
[Marie O’Halloran, Irish Times, 23 November]
“University lecturers have warned of ‘chaos and confusion’ if there is a return to face-to-face teaching in the new year in the absence of clear health and safety rules. Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris has said he wants to boost on-campus activity for first year students, in particular, early next year amid concern over a potential rise in drop-out rates …” (more)
[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 22 November]
“Students have expressed feelings of having been “misled into securing accommodation” despite the move of most learning online in a new report published by Sinn Fein. Sinn Féin Higher and Further Education Spokesperson Rose Conway-Walsh has published the results of the Sinn Féin Student Accommodation Survey 2020 …” (more)
[Connie Roughan, Trinity News, 21 November]
“Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael): I very much welcome the opportunity to update the House on some of the work of the new Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science just under five months on from its creation and the formation of the Government. I very much appreciate the support and interest from all sides of the Oireachtas for a new stand-alone Department to place a renewed focus on the further and higher education sectors and enhance and develop research and innovation …” (more)
[Dáil debates, 19 November]
“Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if Irish students will be able to avail of SUSI grants post Brexit to study at universities in Northern Ireland and the UK; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 12 November]
“Thousands of third-level students are due to get refunds or credit notes worth up to €250 over the coming weeks. The once-off payments – worth a total of €50 million – are aimed at compensating students for the move towards greater online learning this year. Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris told an Oireachtas education committee on Thursday that those eligible for the refunds would be undergraduate students who have paid the €3,000 student registration fee or who are in receipt of Susi grants …” (more)
[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 12 November]
“Labour Spokesperson on Higher Education Senator Annie Hoey has said that students who were in receipt of the PUP this year were put at a disadvantage in their SUSI applications, as the grant application process did not account for government support payment …” (more)
[Julia Bochenek, Trinity News, 25 October]
