The Deputy may wish to note that the Funding the Future policy published in May 2022, detailed how higher education in Ireland would be funded to meet societal objectives for a high-quality, well-funded higher education system supporting students, meeting workforce needs and delivering the very broad range of benefits to wider society that has helped underpin Ireland's economic and social transformation.
Funding the Future identified €307 million as the increase in core funding required to deliver enhanced performance, strategic reforms and strengthened quality of outcomes.
Subsequently, substantial additional core funding has been prioritised through the Estimates process in order to deliver on the increased level of funding identified in this framework and to improve the higher education system's capacity to respond to national priorities.
Since the publication of Funding the Future, an additional €174 million has been secured in Exchequer and employer funding with a commitment to deliver a further €100 million per annum by 2030 as part of further increased investment from the National Training Fund. It is intended that the remaining funding increase will be met by Exchequer funding in future budgets.
On the basis of this investment, this year more Irish and EU students than ever before took up an offer through the CAO and started on their higher education journey. This growth is facilitated by this increased investment and targeted investment to create additional places in key healthcare courses in medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry and many other health and social care professions, allowing more students than ever before to pursue these programmes. .
Finally, non-EU students make up, in fact, a relatively small proportion of our higher education system overall - 11.8% of all enrolments and only 7.3% of undergraduate enrolments. In addition, international higher education students make a significant contribution to Ireland’s higher education institutions (HEIs), and to society generally, both economically and in terms of the cultural diversity they bring to our campuses.
