Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Private Members' motion. Today, approximately 500 students marched from Eyre Square in Galway to my office but unfortunately, because they had picked a sitting day, I was unable to meet them. However, I had met them at a public meeting the previous Thursday, with my Galway colleague, Deputy Keaveney, where we discussed the issues facing the student population. Nobody in this House denies there are acute pressures on students in the form of rent and other bills, as there are pressures on families struggling under the current economic crisis and recession. The student protest was welcome because students need to be politically active and to engage in the political process. As a student I did the same thing so I encourage them to continue protesting, something I view as positive.

The ideal situation would be that which pertained just before I went to college, when there were no fees and a grant system. That system was slowly eroded over the years. Even in my time in university, from 2000 to 2005, the fees increased dramatically, doubling every year during my undergraduate years. This Government came into office at a time when pressures on public finances were enormous. Promises were made and commitments given in the course of the campaign which the Minister has acknowledged he regrets making. Knowing the man, I believe he made these promises in good faith, believing he could implement them. However, when he looked at his budget after coming into office and the decisions he had to make, he had to pick priorities. There were the issues of SNAs and resource teachers and primary school class sizes which are all very sensitive. Sometimes one must commend a person who breaks a promise to protect something larger, over a person who keeps a promise at a cost to even more vulnerable groups of people. That is not easy to explain to people. However, a right decision is a right decision and over time people will see that it was done for the betterment of society as a whole.

The student movement is a very important one. It should broaden its campaigning agenda, however, because the issues facing students nowadays are not only the costs of third level education but solidarity with their peers who are not in third level courses. There are issues of youth unemployment, emigration and the need for a new deal for young people. If it does not address such issues, the student movement is being neither fair nor true to its own origins and to the greater struggles for which it campaigned in the past.

In my view, the Minister is doing his best amid undoubted challenges. I commend the student movement for the role it has taken in this issue and for its advocacy on behalf of its constituent group. I ask students for a broader debate and to engage in the greater discussions and the greater crisis in which this country is involved. I certainly wish them well, and wish all students well in their third level education.

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