The Irish Universities Association (IUA), of which Trinity College Dublin is a member, has published its pre-budget submission calling on government to accelerate the closing of the funding gap in higher education. It calls for action on utilising the surplus in the National Training Fund which has now ballooned to over €1.5 billion. 

The submission calls for: 

  • At least €120m in additional Funding the Future allocation towards core funding; 
  • A €92m supplementary budget in 2024 to cover the costs of existing staff; 
  • A further €171m in Budget 2025 to continue covering existing staff costs. 

You can read the submission here (pdf). 

In May 2022, Government published “Funding the Future”, a funding and reform framework for higher education in Ireland, which identified a €307m annual shortfall in core funding for the higher education sector and committed to bridging this gap in successive budgets. 

The shortfall has been exacerbated, however, by a failure to provide sufficient funds for national pay awards agreed. Most of the additional €100m provided to the higher education sector in the last two budgets has been eroded by an under-funding of pay awards, leaving universities materially short of funds to pay existing staff. 

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Provost Linda Doyle joined representatives from other Irish universities and the IUA in presenting the pre-budget submission to Oireachtas members in Leinster House.