Dr. Richard Thorn:

I am not in favour of what has happened in Australia, the United States of America and the UK. I am not in favour of the model that loads students with significant amounts of debt as they leave the education system. I am certainly not in favour of that. There are versions of the Cassells report that have been put on the table. The institutes of technology, for example, have suggested that the first three years up to level 7 should be funded by the State and thereafter, at level 8 and above, funding it should become the private responsibility. I believe that this bears thinking about. I am not in favour of a loan system such as in the UK and the United States of America, which probably suggests that I am in favour of the State putting a little bit more in. Ireland does underfund compared with our OECD colleagues.