Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister’s comments on the mental health supports and it is good that there would be some specification or descriptor going to the colleges rather than just a tranche of funding as this is important.

To finish on the issue of international students that was raised previously, many of these students coming into the country have missed out on the possibility of education here over the past while. I have written a number of parliamentary questions in the past year and the latest response I received a number of weeks ago stated that the Minister did not have the exact enrolment figures for 2020 and 2021 but that those figures will be available later on this year. Again, does the Minister know when these figures will be available or can he even give a rough estimate to gauge the potential loss of international students to the colleges nationwide and the financial implications for those institutions?

Finally, on contingency planning, if other variants of concern or if further twists in this Covid-19 tale arise and we face the possibility or threat of more disruption and closures in the autumn, where are we placed to deal with that, hopefully, never-to-be-seen eventuality but it is always a possibility?