Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The short answer is that this is about additionality and working to ensure we put an individual support and information structure around anybody who comes here. I can only speak for the numbers in further and higher education. So far those numbers have been quite small and especially so in the context of the overall numbers. There are probably around 500,000 people in third level education in Ireland and we are talking about 535 calls to the helpline. I expect that number to grow and as Deputy Ó Cathasaigh reminded us, slightly more than 3,000 people between the ages of 18 and 24 years have come from Ukraine. From our point of view, it is very much about putting additional support in place. For example, when I go to Government in the next two weeks I will seek additional funding for psychological services in recognition that a higher education student from Ukraine will obviously have fled a war zone and the pressures that will bring. That is the space we are in.