Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, I welcome the Wake Up SUSI campaign here this morning. I met members of the Limerick branch of the campaign in Limerick recently and was inspired by the many stories I heard. It is strange that all these courses appear on the CAO yet students are not informed so they go into the application process blindfolded and do not realise that they will not be eligible to receive any of the grants. These are all very legitimate courses. Taking Mr. Byrne's story, he did not have much choice; the course he chose was the only one on offer in his area. I am sure many more such stories are replicated across the 200 students, so I take the campaign very seriously. We need to consider it seriously because why should the 200 students across the country be disenfranchised while we pay for people to go abroad on courses and so on?