Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is great to hear again a Minister quoting the Chief Medical Officer with approval. We are returning to some kind of normality within abnormal times.

I echo what Deputy Ó Laoghaire said about the position of third level staff. They sometimes have very poor working conditions, poor remuneration, etc. That is definitely an area that we must look out for.

On the subject of student loans, I want to reiterate that what I propose here is that we, first of all, have a brave conversation. It cannot all be testing against what the media will think of us. I propose that we look at people's ability to repay, in other words, that what students get and what they have to repay is tied to the advantage that they eventually secure. It will be important that Government shows itself to be willing to embrace ideas that will be challenged from some quarters but, as with the question of exhorting students to be careful and to be safe, sometimes the message will have to be strong. There will be much to congratulate but the news cannot always be good news coming from the Government side. There will have to be challenging messages from time to time. Otherwise, we will not be able to face the challenges that are before us.