James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Senator. She raised a number of important issues. In terms of industrial relations issues and the grade of adult educator, I am pretty supportive of that. The role was established through the industrial relations framework following engagements between ETBs and employers and workers. They engaged extensively and it was back and forth in the Labour Court. The grade was then established. I attended the TUI conference at Easter, engaged with delegates and registered my support for that. That is real progress. It is optional, which is important. Workers are not obliged to sign up to it if they do not want to, but the structure has been put in place. The grade exists, has been approved through the industrial relations mechanisms and is there for them should they wish to avail of it.

On North-South issues, I have been North a couple of times during my ministry. I met the Minister, Caoimhe Archibald, my opposite number, when I visited the North. We had a very good conversation. There is two-way traffic with students going in both directions. There was a striking issue with northern students coming South. When I was in university, it was very common. There were multiple students from the North attending. That fell away in recent years a little bit. One of the reasons is the anomaly that a student doing three A-levels had a maximum equivalent of 570 points. Some courses that were traditionally attractive to students from the North, like law and medicine, are often higher than that. Even with their best efforts and scoring the maximum on their system, they could not get the points to avail of such courses in the South. That is being addressed. There is an optional extra exam that students from the North can take to accompany the A-levels. They sit it a year earlier. By sitting it, they get a bonus points mechanism which they plug onto their A-level subjects. Combined, that gives the equivalent of maximum points in the leaving certificate. That is coming into place from this year, I understand. That is a positive and should assist in this regard.

There are issues in the North with the cap. The number of students that the Northern Ireland Executive will fund is limited. It is not my place to comment but it does create difficulties for students in the system there. Some students are leaving the North to study elsewhere because of it, which is a pity. We have a number of students attending northern institutions, including Queen's and Ulster University. I visited Queen's and met with students in medicine and nursing courses. We have students in Ulster University and have pledged €44 million to the university's Magee Campus. It is a significant shared island project and a significant funding commitment we have given, and we will see it through.

I agree on SUSI grant reform. Every year my Department does extensive engagement on a cost of education exercise. I held a conference in Croke Park about a month ago to which I invited student bodies, educators, access officers, colleges and people representing disadvantaged communities to attend and engage with me and my team on that. We had good discussions over the course of the day. I intend to publish a cost of education options paper this summer. There are choices. Nothing is consequence-free. For every measure we take, there is some other section that may be disadvantaged as a result. I have an overriding mantra of fairness and I believe that those who need more assistance get more assistance. There has to be a corollary that those who need less assistance receive less. I cannot be everything to everybody. That would not be a fair or progressive system. It is reasonable and appropriate to give more to those who need more. That is a fundamental principle of social policy. All those options will be enumerated in the options paper I will publish this summer. Then we can have a wider debate across the system on where that goes next.