LAST UPDATE | 11 Oct 2023

FEES FOR UNIVERSITY students are to be cut by €1,000 as part of the Government’s 2024 budget on a once-off basis.

The minister made the announcement during his budget speech to the Dáil yesterday.

The €1,000 reduction in the contribution fee is part of the budget’s cost of living package, which also includes supports for apprentices and postgraduate students.  

Additionally, students whose total household income is under €100,000 can apply for a SUSI grant to receive another €500 against their fees.

Donohoe announced “a once-off reduction of approximately 33% in the contribution fee for apprentices in higher education and an increase in the Post Graduate Tuition fee contribution by €1,000 for student grant recipients”. 

“I am providing a once off reduction of the student contribution fee by €1,000 for free fees students,” he said.

“Free fees” is the term used for fees paid by students from Ireland or elsewhere in the EU who qualify for their tuition costs to be mostly subsidised but who are traditionally required to pay a €3,000 “student contribution fee” – the highest undergraduate fees of any EU country.

The Union of Students’ in Ireland (USI) said that the package will “put some money back in students’ pockets” but that overall the Budget had “no measures that will have a medium or long-term impact on the cost of third-level education, particularly the student accommodation crisis”.

“As student representatives, it is difficult for USI to look at this Budget as anything other than an overall disappointment, as the chance to use a small percentage of the significant Budget surplus to address the student accommodation crisis was not taken,” the union said in its reaction to the Budget.

Similarly, the Society of St Vincent de Paul welcomed the increase to the SUSI grant but said that it has “for a long time called for SUSI to be made available to students studying part-time and is disappointed that there was no decision to provide SUSI support to this group”.

Sinn Fein’s spokesperson for higher education, TD Mairéad Farrell, wrote on social media that it was “disappointing” that the fee reduction was only a once-off reduction.

Disappointing that the €1,000 reduction in student contribution charge or fees by any other name is a once off.

Sinn Féin would cut them fully by 1,000 and abolish them in 3 years.

Not a mention of student accommodation either 🤷🏼‍♀️

— Mairéad Farrell TD (@Farrell_Mairead) October 10, 2023

Farrell also lamented the lack of attention to student accommodation.

 You can find full details of the Budget in our roundup here. 

Additional reporting by Lauren Boland