Dr. Aed?n Doris:

I want to point out that we abolished fees before and it did not make any different to access. The reason for that is the bottom 50% do not pay fees so it will not make any difference to them. It will make a difference to families who are struggling. In particular, as I said and as the Chair mentioned, if you have multiple kids it will make a difference to your family. I would prefer option 1 to option 2. Senator Malcolm Byrne framed his question around a choice between prioritising either a reform of SUSI or getting rid of fees. That is why we answered in the way we did.