Mr. Keith Moynes:

There are two issues. The first is the challenge of the academic year in that it is the last quarter of the year so the trends only really manifest very late in the day in terms of how it coincides with the budgetary cycle. That is always a challenge. There was a recognition of the challenges Deputy O'Connor set out and so within the subhead a number of decisions were made. An additional maintenance payment was given to students to address cost-of-living issues. More money was put into the student assistance fund and there was a postgraduate fee reduction, so there were interventions in addition to the fact that, as the Secretary General said, there was a €1,000 reduction across the board in the student contribution. There were a number of things in recognition of the cost-of-living issue. The challenge is that effectively we never close SUSI, so if students miss the deadline, they can still apply. We do not want a situation where if someone misses a deadline he or she loses the ability-----