Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for talking across the Senator. We want the students to stay. If they are leaving en masse, we need to understand why. If a student in Ireland is being paid significantly more than a student in England, Scotland or Wales while doing a degree at €17,400 versus €,10,000, according to the figures I have been given, it stands to reason that pay is not why they are leaving. They are paid more here during their time of study. We do need to understand, therefore, why they are dissatisfied when they leave the education system. We need to fix that.