James Lawless
Kildare North · Fianna Fáil · Ireland
“I am always open to feedback. The academics and authors of that report are entitled to their views, as are others. I just do not share all of their conclusions. As the Deputy said, the consultant spending was before my time. A lot of it was before the Department even existed.”
“More broadly, and this is something I think there is great potential to do more on, we are also promoting modern methods of construction, MMC, so we can embrace 2D or 3D models where they are either partially assembled off site and then brought to the location or almost fully assembled and the finished kit is brought into place.”
“In the energy space, that includes a commitment of €10 billion to enhance the grid capacity, because we need to be able to transit the energy as well as generate it, the workforce and the talent to do that - everything from retrofitting to green energy technicians and renewable energy engineers.”
“The capital funding envelop available to me is the mechanism through which I fund these projects, which is significant with €4.55 billion allocated across my Department for capital projects. SETU is the relevant institute in the south east, and it has multiple campuses, including a presence in the Xcelerate Centre at St.”
“I will recap on some of the measures I have introduced already because it is important to put them on the record again. In the previous budget, I was pleased to introduce the first ever permeant fee cut for students since free fees were introduced almost 30 years ago with a €500 permanent reduction.”
“Exactly. That is why we have a record €4.5 billion commitment across the sector. Regarding student facilities, there is the likes of the bundle 2 PPP programme which enhances student facilities on university campuses across the country.”
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“The planned intake in the current year is 78 Irish students, with 26 of those in UCC, 32 in Trinity College and 20 in RCSI. The UCC outreach proposal I mentioned has the potential to raise intake by another 35 student places. All those measures combined strengthen and increase the opportunities for domestic students. It is the case that a course like this cannot be ramped up overnight because it requires extensive practical training. That can limit capacity, but my Department and the Department of Health are helping UCC to refurbish its dental school and hospital, at a cost of €15 million, to support future growth. With all these measures, we are working hard to increase the number of dental places and dental graduates. There is also additional funding for UCC across a variety of projects. I might touch on those shortly.”
“We remain committed to working with those stakeholders to increase the number of dental training places available to align with the Smile agus Sláinte oral health policy and to increase the number of healthcare places available across the State.”
“In parallel, UCC is refurbishing its dental school and hospital, co-funded by the Department of Health and UCC, to increase capacity for future growth. My officials are actively engaged in this process to examine all options to increase places there. These developments complement the new BA in dental surgery programme at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, which commenced in September with 20 places for EU students. The intake on that programme is projected to increase to 35 places annually by 2027. I recently visited and saw the wonderful new facilities and the great work being done to increase our dental graduate output.”
“In consultation with the Department of Health, which has advised that dentistry is an area requiring an additional supply of graduates, we are working to expand opportunities for Irish students, particularly given the demands for oral healthcare and the need to reduce waiting lists in the south west of the country. My Department is actively engaging with UCC and the Department of Health on a proposal to establish a dental outreach centre in north Cork. This initiative will enable training and additional undergraduate dental students each year. My officials are engaging with UCC with a view to maximising the number of Irish and EU students this could support. It also supports a community-based model of education giving students earlier clinical exposure in primary care settings which enhances readiness to enter practice when they graduate.”
“This is a consistent theme of the Deputy's and an area he takes a significant interest in. I thank him for his ongoing advocacy. The Government is committed to increasing healthcare training places more broadly, but very much including dentistry, in line with commitments in the programme for Government. I like to think I made some good inroads into that in the first ten months of the term. At present, University College Cork admits around 50 students annually to its dentistry programme, split evenly between Irish or EU students and non-EU students.”
“I presume that is positive news in the Deputy's area. It is just to apprise him of that. On the borrowing framework, intense engagement is under way between my Department and the Departments of Finance and public expenditure with regard to a financial framework that will allow the technological universities partner with the private sector to deliver accommodation on or adjacent to the campuses. That will be very positive for the sector. I hope to unveil that very soon.”
“The Deputy made a number of points. I totally agree with him that the provision of serviced sites on or adjacent to campuses is key. There is a significant earmarked fund within the student strategy and my national development plan budget to allow for those sites to progress, and to be identified and serviced, with facilities where necessary. The local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF, was used in the housing sector and the technological sector student accommodation programme is under way. The Deputy might be interested that in his own area, nine submissions are in for ATU Galway. Queen Street accommodation, with 345 beds, has been developed and is due to be completed in 2026. At the end of November 2025, over 4,000 rent-a-room, or digs, beds were made available across Galway.”
“The breadth of apprenticeships, in particular the wind turbine maintenance apprenticeship and the hospitality apprenticeships, and some of the other courses and skills on display that day were very strong. I thank Councillor Norma Moriarty, who is the chair of the education and training board, who gave a great tour that day. That was particularly interesting. Deputy Cahill mentioned Killarney Technology Innovation Centre. I might get one of my officials to come back to him with details on that. An issue was raised on my visit to the MTU campus in Tralee. It was mentioned that students were not receiving the green cert despite taking an agricultural course. I am engaged with discussions on that. I met the students that day and committed to coming back on that.”
“I have to wish Sallins the best of luck on Sunday in its own intermediate final, so we have to get that in as well on the day. I will take Deputy Cahill's question first and then revert to Deputy Connolly. It was good to visit Killarney and Tralee recently along with Deputy Cahill, the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, and the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Healy-Rae. It was a good visit. The Pretty Polly site is moving ahead. I know this is very important to Deputy Cahill. I was pleased to be able to confirm the progression of that site very recently, which I know was welcomed locally as well. There are still a number of steps to go through in terms of the different gates but the education and training board is progressing that project. I was delighted to visit the education and training board that day as well.”
“This is a revised set of guidelines published in June 2025 setting out a blueprint for student accommodation that delivers maximum beds per block, uses clever use of space and shared facilities such as lounge rooms and laundry rooms and seeks an optimal return on available bed usage. They are some of the measures I am introducing. I will say hello to the students from Athy as well while they are here today. It is good to have them in the audience.”
“By providing targeted financial supports and accelerating the development of purpose-built student accommodation, PBSA, the strategy aims to remove barriers that prevent students from accessing college and pursuing their academic goals. The strategy builds on wider Government initiatives to support viability of student accommodation such as rental legislation reform where I am working closely with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage on how rent pressure zones might apply to student accommodation; the budget 2026 VAT reduction on the sale of new apartments, which will be very helpful; the rent-a-room tax relief, which is a key measure involving up to €14,000 per householder tax free; and the introduction of streamlined design standards under the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2025.”
“I thank the Deputy for his continued advocacy, support and championing of ideas for this sector. The national student accommodation strategy 2025 to 2035 is due to be published in the coming weeks and will be considered and agreed by Government before being officially launched. It is at a very advanced stage. The strategy aims to make higher education more accessible by addressing both affordability to ensure students can afford rents and secure accommodation and also the viability of supply, which the Deputy's question goes to, to ensure the units come into being quickly and are built out to meet that demand that very evidently exists.”
“There are specialties, disciplines and knowledge in each institution that can be shared and benefited from. I always say "ní neart go cur le chéile" - we are stronger together and that is evident in this all-Ireland collaboration.”
“All-Ireland entities are always fashionable in my household. We can have all the citizens' assemblies and deliberate as much as we want to but doing it for real is what counts and that is what we are doing here. There is a very ambitious timetable to make that collaboration come together. I intend to bring legislation through the Houses in the new year to set out the mechanics of how it will be enabled. It is important that Dundalk Institute of Technology continues to enjoy strong autonomy as part of the HEA landscape while being a fully fledged university institute and college of Queen's University with all the powers to award degrees conferred by Queen's University as part of that. Both entities will benefit. Queen's University will also benefit significantly from the collaboration.”
“It is fair to say that the reaction to the first all-island university has been extremely positive and strong across the board. That all-island dimension to education and our schools is so important.”
“Absolutely. The opportunity that Cavan provides was very evident on the day of my visit. There is a great opportunity to continue to expand educational provision there on site at the Cavan Institute. That would be encompassed by the college of the future programme, which I am working out through the national development plan. I am examining progress on that at the moment but I would be confident that will be one of the projects that will do well from the fund. On the all-island dimension, I was pleased to be able to announce the collaboration between Queen's University Belfast and Dundalk Institute of Technology very recently. I spoke to both colleges a number of times in relation to this and I am very keen that we advance that expeditiously. There is ambitious programme shared by both colleges.”
“It has now been relaunched with a €750 million fund to again drive on our economic prosperity and research and innovation commitment.”
“Just last week, I launched the Infreastruchtúr don nuálaíocht, staidéir, páirtíocht, imscrúdú, rath eacnamaíochta agus eolaíocht, INSPIRE, programme, a €750 million commitment to research and innovation funding in the State. It is unprecedented in recent years. It is a successor programme to the PRTLI, which was successful at the start of the century in driving on our economic position as well. I want to acknowledge that Deputy Smith was a member of the Government in 2010 that committed to the PRTLI programme at a time when economic conditions were difficult, to say the least, and the wolf was at the door. That Government had the foresight and belief to commit to that again. Unfortunately, after that point, it lay fallow for some years until I came to office.”
“It is very much a snapshot of the opportunity that is available through education. Our future prosperity depends on our ability to compete globally and lead out as a small, advanced knowledge economy. We are a knowledge and skills economy. People are our greatest natural asset. I see my job, as Minister in this brief, as unlocking that potential. People have the talent, skills and knowledge, and they need to impart them. We need to nurture it and allow them to reach their full potential. That is key to our economic success, particularly in a changing world with trade, tariffs and a number of unknowns. What we do control and have as a known is our people and talent, and being able to nurture that.”
“I thank the Deputy. I thank him also for the invitation to Cavan recently. I was delighted to be able to take that up. We visited the Cavan Institute, where we saw, among other things, the original equipment manufacturing, OEM, apprentices at work on the advanced manufacturing side. We also saw the students at Youthreach, which is a very critical intervention with youth. From there, I went to Monaghan Institute and finished the day in the Atlantic Technological University, ATU, in Letterkenny, where we launched the new vet school. That, as just a snapshot of a day visiting key sites, shows the activity and investment going on in the north west alone by Youthreach and interventions with disadvantaged learners - giving them an opportunity to succeed - right through to the new professionals being created by the vet school in ATU.”
“We will look at the procurement supports that are there and measures we can use to stimulate. Where appropriate, there is funding in the system to make serviced sites available where colleges have sites. They can be encouraged to put them to use for student accommodation to try to get some of those 15,000 beds, and a lot more, unlocked and progressed.”
“I am glad the Deputy mentioned the rent a room scheme because that is an important tax relief that is available. Householders can earn up to €14,000 per year tax free by renting rooms to students. It has also been extended to local authority tenants, and at the end of last month, over 5,200 rent a room student beds were on offer in higher education institutions across the country, so that is a very significant measure. In regard to the stock that is on hand, the Deputy mentioned the level of delivery in her opening question. One issue that is of concern to me is that there are almost 15,000 student beds that have planning permission but have not actually moved to construction. We need to look at the reasons that might be the case. A lot of that comes from viability. I refer to things like the VAT reduction on new apartment building.”
“Feasibility studies were performed over the past two years and the technological universities were invited to submit proposals, which they have done. The preliminary business cases will be examined in the new year to consider those projects and where they go next. I will come back in the next round.”
“I wish to confirm and restate that the maintenance grants have increased significantly in some cases, particularly those on the non-adjacent rungs of the grant system. That is something that is very important to me and that I was very determined to be able to do. As well as that, there is additional support for students with disabilities and mental health challenges. The thresholds have increased to the highest ever level, to the extent that 80% of households are now eligible for at least some form of grant support. Of course, the student fee itself has been permanently discounted by €500 from the base figure I inherited at the start of this year. These are all positive steps. The technological sector student accommodation programme is a particular accommodation package within the technological universities.”
“I was pleased to announce today that I was increasing the student assistance fund again for the coming year by over €10.2 million. It is a discretionary fund available through the welfare officers in the colleges to support students with a range of additional costs and expenses. That will now stand at €19.3 million for this academic year, which is a record high. In fact, it even exceeds the amount awarded only last year. I am committed to continuing those supports, targeting supports at people who need them most, and making sure the cost of college is mitigated as far as it can be by support from the Department.”
“In budget 2026, for example, I secured an additional €10.5 million to increase all non-adjacent maintenance grants under the student grant scheme by at least €200 - in most cases by more. That means all grants for people who are non-adjacent, which means they live 30 km or more from the college, have increased, and in some cases significantly. That is to reflect the fact that those students have an additional financial burden because they are travelling or having to pay for rent or accommodation. Some 30,000 students can avail of that. The 30 km figure is down from 45 km, so that support is available to more students than ever before. My Department also provides measures such as the 1916 bursary and the student assistance fund to students with particular socioeconomic difficulties.”
“I thank the Deputy. I am very aware of the high cost of student accommodation and the burden it places on students, especially those from rural or outlying areas, although it is not limited to them. In my own household, which is in an urban area, my daughter has commuted to UCD for the past couple of years and it was not a short commute, despite the fact we are not terribly far away from the college geographically. There is an additional financial burden on students who have to make that commute or cannot secure accommodation. The student accommodation strategy 2025-2035 will set out Ireland's national policy to support access to appropriate housing and accommodation for students. Through the strategy, I am committed to expanding supports that directly address affordability pressures on students, especially for those who need it most.”
“The TU research and innovation supporting enterprise, TU RISE, research programme within the technological universities amounts to €83.68 million. The national technological university transformation for recovery and resilience, N-TUTORR, project has €40 million and there is the targeted enhancement fund, which allows things like project management systems, integrated accounting systems and student record systems to be better integrated across the TUs. They have taken a number of legacy campuses and pulled them together. Part of the funding is to bring them together in an holistic fashion.”
“They are being closely monitored, not least by me. I keep a programme for Government tracker to make sure we make our targets and, as far as possible, get ahead of target in delivering all the items I signed up to deliver at the start of this year. The OECD report is extremely useful in setting out academic career structures, contracts, senior management and leadership structures and the benefits they bring to an organisation, which are well documented and on which we are all in agreement. In terms of the wider development of the technological universities, there have been a number of funding commitments and programmes rolled out in the past year. For example, €90 million over three years has been recently committed to in the transformation fund. The technological university advancement fund has a €50 million envelope over two years.”
“It is not just about giving them a new title, but about looking at their work output, the programmes they take on, enterprise engagement and the leadership role they play in the academic sector and that they are more than capable of playing, but it has to be reflected. That is part of this programme of transition as well.”
“For clarity, I will provide a short recap of the historical position. The original institutes of technology, IoTs, did not have professorial grades. They were amalgamated, largely, to form the technological universities we have now. Within the IoTs, the comparative grade was senior lecturer 3. The scales, grades, bands and job titles did not innately map onto the universities'. In some cases, the legacy job titles, conditions and work programmes did not map either. For example, they did not necessarily work over the summer. In a traditional university, a research professor would have a body of work over the summer months. In an IoT, a senior lecturer would typically finish up at the end of the academic term in May and not return until maybe late September. That is a significant difference.”
“I am confident we have made significant progress on this in recent weeks. I hope to be able to announce that and get it brought to a conclusion, with agreement from the Government, before the year's end.”
“That fund includes provision for the technological university professorships. The professor grades will be funded through that. There are some approvals required from other parts of the Government, primarily the Minister for public expenditure, Deputy Chambers. I am working closely with him to finalise the terms and conditions that will attach to those grades. I am confident of resolving this matter before year's end. We are nearly there now but I have been working on it intensely, particularly in recent weeks. That will be a significant milestone. It will give the technological universities the status they deserve and allow professors to be appointed within them, which is necessary for leadership of research projects, enterprise engagement and a status commensurate with their positioning.”
“I thank the Deputy. It is something I am focused on and it is in the programme for Government. It is something I have been working on since I took on the position. I am committed to continuing the progress of the technological universities as key drivers of regional and national development. They have fantastic potential and are already realising it. I think I have visited all of them at this stage - multiple sites within some of them. They are a strong regional accelerator in terms of bringing excellence and university education to every corner of the country. Last week, I announced a new targeted investment of €65.8 million for the technological university sector. That is the targeted enhancement fund, TEF. The projects will run over a 36-month period up to December 2028.”
“That is how it was done in PRTLI before and it is best practice internationally. In terms of the shared infrastructure, the way it is envisaged to work is this. They are large items with a minimum €500,000 price tag; some may be multiples of that, depending on the item. Again, it would be a competitive call. All universities, effectively, would be invited in to put forward their proposals. There would be a competitive process that would then go into a central portal, which other universities can share it from.”
“The programme will be delivered in two phases and will be managed by the Higher Education Authority in the first phase and by Research Ireland in the second. The first phase will establish a strategic baseline across the sector such that all investments are grounded in a systematic alignment with the particular university or HEI. It is a competitive fund and not a case of there being one for everyone in the audience. Funding will be awarded based upon excellence and impact, in alignment with the university. Universities are encouraged to put together their own proposals and they will be considered by an expert panel. That panel will be entirely independent and I will not have an involvement in it. The proposals will be peer-reviewed by expert academics who probably will be external to the country.”
“INSPIRE is very much based upon that expert guidance and it has been very warmly welcomed by the sector. Many of the presidents have been in touch with me directly and many of them attended the recent launch. It is great to be in a position now to be able to do this.”
“I understand the points the Deputy raised. I will be addressing student accommodation in the response to a later question, so I will not duplicate that now. The framework on which the INSPIRE programme is built was developed in collaboration with the sector. In March of this year, I put together an expert working group made up of people from the Irish Universities Association, people with experience of the PRTLI programme and expert academics. We very much looked to the sector to see what it needed and to seek its inputs, suggestions and guidance as to what was missing and what needed to be taken into the next stage. I had some knowledge of that from previous engagements but I wanted to formally engage as part of the exercise to put the programme in place.”
“The INSPIRE programme has a number of different layers, one of which is to refresh equipment, systems and facilities across the HEIs. That will give them the base layer of equipment they need to perform world-leading, excellent and impactful research. There is another layer for very large-ticket items that are particularly expensive and complex and which one institution may struggle to purchase and manage on its own. The intention is to have a shared infrastructure portal whereby larger items like supercomputers and wire banks can be purchased by one institution and made available to all that want to avail of it. We will have a national management system for that.”
“It has already been launched and the capital has been secured through the national development plan. It is a successor to the programme for research in third level institutions, PRTLI, which ran in the first decade of the century and was pivotal in sowing the seeds for the very strong research and innovation ecosystem that was built upon it. It withered on the vine to an extent over the past decade or so, having not been renewed since 2010 or 2011. My party promised a new initiative in this area in our manifesto and it was included in the programme for Government. I was particularly pleased to deliver it in our first year in office. Under the overall NDP capital envelope, there is some €4.55 billion for my Department, €2.45 billion of which is being allocated to research and innovation of different hues.”
“This is a timely question. On 26 November, I launched the new INSPIRE research infrastructure programme, which provides €750 million for capital investment in research infrastructure across the State and all our HEIs. It is a landmark moment for Ireland's national research and innovation system. As I am sure the Deputy has done, I have met with various stakeholders from the higher education system, including deans of research and presidents, and members of the research community, including PhD researchers and students, as well as industry representatives and employers, who ultimately will seek to take up the ideas that emerge from research and employ the skilled graduates who flow from the institutions. INSPIRE will commence early in the new year.”
“Proceeding with a project that, at a specification and cost level, may be far in excess of what is appropriate or necessary would not be a wise move. I am speaking hypothetically but I hope the Deputy agrees with me on that principle. I look forward to UCC publishing its revised plans for the business school in 2026. The university will have my full support for the next steps.”
“The Deputy will have to forgive me for saying I am not entirely sure what she is asking. On the one hand, she is calling for me to spend more money and, on the other, she is talking about being careful with taxpayers' money. I am a little confused as to what her ask is. Value for money is a key consideration. UCC is an autonomous body and a very well-run institution with an extremely competent chair, president and board. They have told me they intend to publish their renewed and revised plans early in the new year and we will then see the shape of the new business college. It certainly will be stronger for the process that has been gone through. Throwing good money after bad would not be wise.”
“However, a wise reassessment is taking place of the overall project specifications, scope and cost envelope as part of the capital review plan. I am heartened that the college authorities are doing that. It is a wise approach to the use of State money and the ultimate outcome will be far stronger for it.”
“For clarity, I am not aware of any impact on this particular project as a result of any kind of funding withdrawal or shortfall. It is news to me if that is the case. It has not been raised with me by any of the college authorities or anybody else in the sector other than by way of the Deputy's suggestion today on the floor of the Dáil. As such, it is fair to say it is not a factor here. What is strongly a factor is delivering value for money. I hope the Deputy agrees with me that it is important State funding is used well, wisely and to deliver maximum benefits for the institute and for the student population it serves. The ambition remains to develop a very high-end business school in the ambit of UCC.”
“There are a number of considerations that are currently being examined in light of this review but I am assured that the ambition and intention remains to deliver a world-class business college of which the city and the college can be very proud. However, I do not expect that it will be the same proposal as has been previously presented.”
“Approval in principle was granted in 2019 and the total cost of the project at that time was estimated at €105 million, with a delivery of a 17,000 sq. m custom-built business school on a site on Union Quay being examined. I understand that the university and the governing authority have full intention and full ambition to develop a world-class business school. They are committed to the project. It will advance. However, value for money is a key consideration. Space utilisation and optimisation in the preferred location must be a feature, as must student access and accessibility, synergy and the ability to leverage other parts of the existing campus.”
“I hope the Deputy will agree that value for money is a key component of every State-sponsored project or use of State funds. UCC is an autonomous institution. It manages its own projects and capital and it is responsible for the oversight, planning and management of its capital development plan. The university has a review under way in light of increased construction inflation. The increase in construction costs and materials in recent years has been well ventilated and that has an impact on provision and delivery of various projects. On completion of that review which is currently under way, UCC will submit its capital plan to the governing authority in the coming months; I expect it in the new year. Provision of €25 million was made for the business school in 2019 under the higher education strategic infrastructure fund.”
“Equally, some of the larger courses, like those for electricians, plumbers or wood manufacturing, are available more widely and in those cases it is reasonable to expect that a place closer to home would come available. I expect a certain degree on knowledge on the part of the apprentice. Certainly, that should be communicated during the induction stage. Even though there may be a seven-day window to accept or refuse the place, there should have been an awareness of what is likely to arise long before that stage.”
“The Deputy will be aware that there are allowances available to the apprentices who have to travel. There are various different rates and different bandings depending on whether they are travelling 5, 10 or 20 miles, right up to 40 miles or more. There are different travel allowances available to apprentices to help them in meeting those travel costs. While the issue is a real one, and one which I have asked SOLAS to examine and tackle, there is an induction module for apprentices when they start. Depending on the particular apprenticeship, and I gave the example of the farriers located in Kildare but there are many across the country, it should be known by people entering that these are based in a particular limited location.”