Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Everything has a cost. It is interesting that the Minister has defended and made a cogent argument as to why the well-off should be even better off. If the Minister looks at the statistics from Patrick Clancy and others on who went to college before the introduction of free tuition fees at university level, the tax covenants that were available only to the wealthy — the Minister will remember the figures as he was part of that Government — were costing more in tax expenditure than giving free third-level under graduate tuition fees. That was the choice that was made and, if I remember correctly the Minister was a party to it. I am aware there are many politically correct people like the Minister who still consider there was something fundamentally wrong with the children of those on modest incomes having access to third level education. It was all right for farmers' children to get grants to go to college but it was different for people living and working in towns and cities throughout the country.

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