Dr. Joseph Ryan:

Going back to the debate on the loan scheme, THEA set itself against that. We did that due to the access issue since we felt that it would exacerbate the challenges for so many people accessing higher education. I made the point earlier that the sector I have the honour to represent is the access sector. It has done much for the democratisation of education. These new technological universities are geographically more dispersed, which will make things easier. That is not to gainsay the Chair's points. The challenge is that the student fee is one of the highest in Europe. Accommodation costs are high. I used to work as a registrar in the college and one could hear the pips squeak a number of years ago when families came and said that they could not afford to have their next son or daughter go through education. The funding is a three-legged stool. Hopefully, we will have a discussion dedicated to funding in time. That three-legged stool is the student contribution which I propose is effectively maxed out, as it stands. The second part is the National Training Fund, which is now at 1%, a significant contribution from enterprise. The third part is central funding. I fully take the point that has been made here a few times. We are looking at a potential change in the tax regime. Our native genius is in the talent of our people. It is worth investing in the talent of those people because that is what draws people to this small, open, productive economy. I hope that is the discussion that we have when we come back.