Mr. Jim Miley:

I will not repeat the points already made. I will make a number brief points. On the cost issue, as part of the funding analysis in the follow-on report to the Cassells report by the expert group on funding, which was chaired by Ms Bríd Horan, there was some comparative analysis in it that showed the Irish system compared very favourably on a cost-efficiency basis with other systems around Europe.

On the access or progression issue that Deputy Farrell referred to, we need to recognise that the two Covid-19 packages supplied by the Government helped our institutions to supply the services and provide some direct support to students which helped to mitigate some of the effects of Covid-19. The good news, although I do not have the data to hand, is that there are no indications from what we have seen of any diminution in progression levels as a result of Covid-19, perhaps because of the factors outlined by Dr. Ryan or otherwise. A combination of the supports and the fact there was nothing else to do except study may be the dominant issues. Progression levels across our institutions are very high and we compare very favourably with other countries in that. Among the universities we represent, the non-progression levels are below 10%. In some European countries from first year, they can be 30% to 40% to 50% where they have more unfiltered access to their systems.