Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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Apart from the whole issue of funding the sector, reform of the system is badly needed too. There is no point in having no fees when the cost of sending a student to college is high. One has to go hand in hand with the other. Linking in with businesses is very important. Ring-fencing the levy and increasing it was mentioned earlier. We have to look at the whole apprenticeship and skills area.

Senator Byrne spoke about the large companies, but we must also be mindful of the SME sector which is struggling, so we should not put an extra levy on those.