Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

Clearly, as we are making reductions in student supports, that is impacting on students, and we are very conscious of the difficult and challenging times students are facing in terms of accessing higher education. Notwithstanding the maintenance of the proportionate school leavers and other students going into higher education, we recognise that, as with all other parts of society, they are very challenged in terms of supporting themselves. The environment has worsened a lot in recent years and we have made additional funding available under the student assistance fund, both in 2011 and 2012, to third level institutions to allow them to make local decisions and so that they can make funding available where the need arises, that they can identify needs that are beyond the scope of the overall student support arrangements. We are very conscious of that.

Earlier we talked about Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI. The impact of SUSI at the same time compounded what I have just referred to. As with all other parts of society, and we are very conscious of it, everybody is stretched. That is certainly the case with students. Notwithstanding that, clearly, budget decisions had to be made and we had to ensure our expenditure was reduced in each of the years. We made those decisions about student supports in that context.