Professor Diarmuid Hegarty:

There is definite merit in it and I strongly recommend it. The trouble is I do not have to have the courage to face the electorate - the Senator does. I wish him all the strength he can muster in that. It is absolutely right. To develop the point, a significant number of our clinical placements in medicine are effectively allocated to non-EU students. This is basically because the universities need to do that. They need the foreign income because the system is underfunded. I am not blaming universities but that is a reality.

Regarding the loan system, that is an awful case. It is just not right. This person wanted to do medicine. The European Stability Mechanism is lending for education purposes. A Romanian bank has borrowed €5 million from it for lending to students. That is a possibility. By the way, the interest rate is 2%. The Romanian bank is charging 11%, the reason being the level of default on such loans. I think this would be possible. That type of system would be possible for students. The problem is that there needs to be political acceptance. The issue of student loans is too hot to handle. It is a hot potato. Every politician has a view on it. In itself, it becomes a controversial issue. It is a classic solution to that young lady's-----