Lawless won't commit to more fee cuts for third level students

James Lawless TD, Minister for Further and Higher Education. Photo :Jason Clarke.

Budget 2027 will “assist with affordability and the cost of college for students” but higher education minister James Lawless has admitted it is “too early to commit” to more fee cuts.

Third-level student fees were cut by €500 as part of last year’s budget, reducing them from €3,000 to €2,500 permanently.

However, this was less than the €1,000 temporary cut that was previously introduced as part of successive cost of living packages.

At the National AI Skills Roundtable in Dublin, Mr Lawless would not be drawn on whether fees would be further cut as part of this year’s budget, which will be announced on October 6.

“The budget is still three or four months away, but I am engaging and planning for that already,” the minister said.

“I'm, at the moment, taking on board pre-budget submissions." 

He said he is "very much in listening and learning mode at the moment" and pre-budget submissions are being processed.

“I will produce a budget package in October that I hope will, maybe not please everybody, but will be a package that will assist with affordability and the cost of college for students, that will boost the training and education system across universities and ETBs, and also that will meet the skills needs of the economy that the likes of ISME and Ibec are advocating for.” 

When asked if this would include cuts to college fees, Mr Lawless said it was “far too early to get into any kind of budgetary commitments at this stage”.

Public expenditure minister Jack Chambers recently imposed expenditure levies on all Government departments to account for a €646m overspend in the Department of Education.

Mr Chambers called on ministers to make cost savings within their departments now to prevent the levies from impacting their budgets next year.

As previously reported by the Irish Examiner, Mr Lawless expressed frustration at a Cabinet meeting over the imposition of levies.

When asked if his department had found enough savings to ensure there would be fee cuts in the budget, Mr Lawless said his “department is always efficient”, and each year it goes through “every cent in terms of how we’re allocating that across research, across further education, across training, in terms of capital spend”.

He added: “We do that every year as part of the annual current budget process as well, and I'm working with Minister Chambers very collaboratively and very constructively on the estimates process for this year.”

Elsewhere, Mr Lawless and his Fianna Fáil colleague Niamh Smyth denied suggestions that Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s leadership of the party is in jeopardy.

It follows an Irish Examiner survey which showed that 50 out of 71 Fianna Fáil TDs, Senators, and MEPs believe Mr Martin should step down at the end of the year.

Ms Smyth said the “Taoiseach is the Taoiseach until he vacates the position”.

Mr Lawless, meanwhile, argued that Mr Martin is “leading from the front”, as he noted how one anonymous politician “ironically” told this newspaper that the Taoiseach is the “best politician” the party has.

He added: “The Taoiseach is the leader of our country, and the leader of our party. We owe him the respect to support him in everything he does.”