Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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That is fine. As I said in my reply to Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh, a feature of the student assistance fund is allowing local decision-making. It is about giving colleges local autonomy. They know their students better than we know them. This is the first occasion I have heard of it, since Deputies Conway-Walsh and Crowe have raised it. It was never brought to my attention before. I would be interested in hearing more about it. My view is that there should be local autonomy. I read out some criteria for the fund. Substantial funding has been made available. I refer to the three universities in Limerick as an example. For the academic year of 2021 to 2022, TUS had €738,000 available in its student assistance fund. The University of Limerick had €1,183,000 available. Mary Immaculate College had €450,000 available.