Mr. Martin Byrne:

I want to reiterate that what we seek is to get exactly what any other student gets and we would make up whatever difference exists. This would be a huge help to us. I would say €200 would have got me out of a hole over the past two years I have been in college. Luckily, the support in my college has been very good. We were asked whether we have financial support. My college is very good in the sense I have missed payments, perhaps more than I should, but there has never been any call to the office or a lock-out. If I needed to pay it over the summer that was no problem. If I wanted to leave it for two or three months and come back there was no issue. If it can do anything to help me it will. I mentioned I must do supervision for €50 an hour. My class went from 58 in first year to the high 20s or low 30s. One can argue that a few of them might have left because the course was not for them, and that is perfect, but I know that in many cases the reason was cash. They could not fund it. They could not get the money together, and no matter how much the college accommodated them they could not get it across.