Minister for Higher Education James Lawless has sought to defuse the controversy over third-level fees by insisting he will be seeking resources in the budget process to continue reductions to the €3,000 fee next year.
After days of division between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil on the issue, Mr Lawless said he would try to achieve the “best possible deal” for students and their parents.
He stressed it was not possible at this stage to say how much of a reduction, if any, would be in the budget. However, he said he wanted to see if changes could be made to offer more support to those with more than one child in college.
Later on Wednesday, Mr Lawless told Fianna Fáil TDs and Senators in a private meeting that most initiatives in his department were funded from once-off spending which meant he was starting from a “low funding base”.
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He told his party colleagues that he planned a comprehensive overhaul of student supports, including grants and fees, and said Fianna Fáil was “the party of education”.
It came as Tánaiste Simon Harris reiterated that the budget would make permanent structural change, including on the cost of childcare and education.
Mr Harris told a private meeting of his TDs and Senators that no decision had been made to return student contribution fees to €3,000 annually. He said supports would be part of the regular budget, not a cost of living package - but that did not mean people would not be halped with the cost of living.
[ Coalition sharply divided over third-level feesOpens in new window ]
“I’m being very straight,” Mr Lawless had earlier told the Kildare Today programme on Kildare FM, his local radio station.
“At this time of year we don’t have a budget yet so no minister before me either has been able to say in July what the budget will be in October,” he said.
“Everything is up in the air, everything is to play for.”
He insisted that any changes would have to be permanent, rather than once-off.
[ Chambers of Commerce offers no clarity over third-level feesOpens in new window ]
If people pay the full amount of fees up front in September, they may “well be entitled to a rebate”, he said, but added that it was not possible to say at this stage what that might be.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, two Government Ministers, including Mr Lawless, failed to clarify in the Dáil whether a proposed €1,000 increase in the fees would come into effect in September.
For the second day in a row under sustained questioning and Opposition accusations of “complete disarray and open revolt” in Government, Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers stressed any changes would be in the context of Budget 2026.
He said “the changes we make will be done in a sustained and permanent way”.
Mr Lawless told Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald the budgetary process takes place in October and “not in June, July or August”.
Controversy over the fees erupted after Mr Lawless said at the weekend on RTÉ that an additional €1,000 would have to be paid this year “as things stand”, provoking a sharp divide with their Fine Gael Coalition partners.
Ms McDonald said the Ministers should “have the decency to be clear with students and their families”.
She said parents and students needed to know what level of fees they will have to pay in September. “It is a very straightforward question”. She asked “will their fees be set at €2,000 or €3,000?”
Mr Lawless told her he was “fighting within the resources available for students and their families for the best possible outcome across the board”with measures such as Susi grants, fee thresholds and student contributions.
The fee, known as an “annual student contribution”, had been €3,000 but it was reduced to €2,000 as a temporary cost-of-living measure and rolled over for two more years. The Government has said that in Budget 2026 it will introduce permanent and sustainable measures to alleviate the cost burden for students and their families, which would likely include fees.
Mr Chambers insisted the Government had to be cautious because of economic uncertainty and said Mr Lawless would engage with students and other stakeholders. “That will form the basis of the options paper on the cost of education”, for the budgetary process, he said.
Acting Social Democrats leader Cian O’Callaghan called on the Government to “stop the pretence that what is going on is part of the normal budgetary process”.
He said “nobody is buying that spin” and claimed there was “complete disarray” and “open revolt” in Government over student fees.
