An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-29
============================================================

Roderic O'Gorman (GP), Dublin West

Students continue to be hugely impacted by the cost-of-living increases and the very specific accommodation crisis that leaves so many of them stuck in their childhood bedrooms. The Green Party believes budget 2027 needs to show this generation of young adults they still have some stake in our State. In our pre-budget submission, drafted by our higher education spokesperson, Councillor Eva Dowling, the Green Party is calling on the Government to raise the household income ceiling for free fees from its current rate of €64,000 to €120,000. This significant rise in the free fee eligibility would mean thousands of students in that squeezed middle would become exempt from the need to pay the €2,500 student contribution charge.
As the Taoiseach makes the final decisions about next week's budget, will he consider this proposal or others that will make a meaningful difference to students in 2027?

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-29