Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)

-----while we have five teaching schools at enormous cost to the State. They may be doing very good work but that is clearly not the way to proceed. I agree that the first thing to do is find all of these inefficiencies quickly and ruthlessly. Nonetheless, if we take Buffalo University in the United States, which is a mid-ranking US university, its total funding is 30% more than our entire university system. That is what we are competing with. I know this is a difficult issue for the Minister and that promises were made before the election. I know he brought in this measure. I benefited from it as a student, and I appreciate that, but I ask the Minister to re-examine it with the back-stop of zero or very low interest loans that only kick in through when the graduate salary hits a certain amount.

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