Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. I come from the position that we must stop viewing education as a cost but as the investment it is. I wish to delve more into the potential impact of these income-contingent loans on emigration. We are a country that suffers from emigration and with a youth unemployment rate of 14%, are we not at huge risk of shedding our talented graduates? It is very alarming to see how New Zealand is dealing with this. It is basically monitoring graduates living outside New Zealand for arrest when they return. We do not want to see that happen to our graduates in Ireland. We want to hold them in our country and encourage them to stay here.

Before I was elected to the Dáil, I was a teacher for 16 years in a DEIS school. Consequently, I am very aware of the student who is first in his or her family. It is a complete departure to consider entering third level. They need to be held and encouraged along the line by family and by school. It took my breath away to see in Dr. Doris's and Dr. Flannery's submission the proposal for an incentive to pay upfront. Obviously, there is not a tad of understanding for the student who can never, ever imagine paying upfront. It is completely unfair when we should be addressing equality of access and opportunity in education. Talk about being blind to the very children we should be targeting to bring into third level. These are gifted children for whom the cost is stopping them from entering third level. Not only do I feel it is wrong for the student but I also believe there is a risk to the State when we consider countries in which the payback rate is as low as 30%; the one in six dropouts, as was referred to, a rate which rises to 26% in our institutes of technology, IOTs, the potential for default through emigration and two recessions 20 years apart. Then we see on page 84 of the Cassells report that the estimation is €10 billion of debt in the first 20 years. That leads us into the next cycle, which, as mentioned, could be a recession. Is that €10 billion of debt therefore vastly underestimated when one takes all of this into consideration?

Finally, Senator Ruane raised the issue of gender but it struck me today: what happens to the stay-at-home parents, be they mothers or fathers, who go to work and then decide instead they want to stay at home with their children? What happens in that scenario?