Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Last week I attended a meeting with USI, at which we were told about a student whose breakfasts, lunches and dinners for the week were one packet of pasta and a bottle of tomato ketchup. That is outrageous. If the students manage to survive through college, they will be faced with unemployment and emigration when they finish. Will the Taoiseach admit this crisis for the young people and students who are the future of this country is not an administrative hiccup? It is the result of his so-called reform of the public service, cuts in staffing and resources and the centralisation of the applications process. Just as we saw a litany of refusals and a backlog of appeals for the domiciliary care allowance and social welfare applications, we now see the same crisis being visited on desperate students. Anybody who wants support and assistance from the State is being denied or left on waiting lists for months. Will the Taoiseach provide the staff and resources required to deal with this crisis? Will he commit to reversing the cuts in students' grants? Will he stop the constant ratcheting up of the registration fees which are already unaffordable for many? Will he allow students the opportunity to study and contribute to our society, an opportunity he is denying many of them at present?

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