James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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I want to be associated with the Chair's comments on the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Comptroller and Auditor General's office. I wish everyone there well. I also congratulate Dr. O'Reardon on his appointment as Secretary General. I wish him every success. It is a new Department and it must be a very exciting undertaking for all involved.

First, I want to raise an issue that appears quite serious. Obviously, with the benefit of hindsight, we could change everything, but this seemed a little bit off to me. It relates to the estimated provision of €423 million for student supports and related expenditure. There was an underspend in 2022 of approximately €105 million. Some may point to that as a consequence of the reduction in the student contribution as a result of Government policy, but we are in a time of such great hardship for families. The rising cost of living was a key component of 2022's household year for families in Ireland and for people going on to higher education. It seems to me that the money was wasted given how it could have been used. I, as a young person, do not need to tell the witnesses how difficult last year was for many younger people. That is something that comes up a lot in constituency offices in terms of SUSI supports for people going on to higher education. An amount to the value of €105 million seems to be astronomical and should probably have been dealt with at some stage last year rather than letting that overspend occur. I would appreciate a response on that first.