Ms Julie Tonge:

The funding for students with disabilities is on a calendar year. UCD was only made aware of the funding we got through the fund for students with disabilities yesterday and we are already a quarter of the way into the year. It is very difficult to predict. We do not know who will arrive in September. Obviously, some students have a high cost implication. We have students with very high support needs - things like personal assistants, transport requests, sign language interpreters and everything else. It is very difficult to manage a fund like that on an annual basis. We do not want to spend all the money we have because we do not know who is coming in September. There are three months left and if we have budgeted for more than we actually need, there is no way to ring-fence that money and keep it for something we could use in the future. Even if we thought we could afford an additional person to provide support for these students, it is very difficult to do that on that annual-funding basis.