Budget will do more for ‘squeezed middle’ - Harris

A senior government minister has said that the government intends to do more to help “squeezed middle” income earners in the next Budget, on October 10.

Minister for Higher Education, Simon Harris, made the comments while in Cavan on Monday at Cavan Institute's Dublin Road campus.

He said that he is “really aware” of the pressures families face, particularly those with young students now moving out of home.

“We obviously want to help families, help businesses, and help communities through what is a very, very challenging period. I think we showed good faith in relation to that in the last Budget, where people saw a number of measures to try and assist individuals, families and businesses, whether that was through energy credits, additional social welfare payments, or in my own department, things like increasing the student grant above the rate of inflation, giving out a student bonus payment before Christmas, and of course by reducing college fees by €1,000.

"So we took a number of measures in the last budget and I'd expect that again we'll be working on a package to assist people with the cost of living. The Minister for Finance has indeed indicated that in recent days,” said the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

Minister Harris further noted the permanent €500 reduction in the €3,000 charge for students in families with up to four children, on an income of €62,000 to €100,000, and how the government had achieved its aim to ensure that there was more accommodation available for young people moving forward to third level this year.

“There is more than 900 college owned beds, and more than 2,000 private beds. The Rent a Room Scheme, which does work for many students, was showing 1,900 rooms available to rent as recently as Friday. But we want to do more and that's why we're in the business of directly funding college accommodation,” he said, accepting that more had been done to make it “as attractive as possible” for homeowners to rent out rooms without their Social Welfare and medical card entitlements being impacted.

“I'm really aware of the pressures facing families, particularly where a student has to move out of home, the cost implications both in the registration fee, perhaps not qualifying for a grant, and the accommodation,” said Minister Harris, accepting that such issues disproportionately impact rural families whose children might have attained a college place in Dublin or another urban centre.

“That doesn't happen in some areas. If you live in the Dublin area you can commute, that's a lower cost without having to move out. It's [families of children who live further away] that we will be looking particularly to try and help out in the budget.”