Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is as if there are soft options available. The Deputy appears to believe we can sprinkle fairy dust and all will be well. I am afraid we do not live in that reality.

On the specifics, we indicated that there would be three successive increases of €250 in student registration charges. We have not reintroduced fees. The Deputy's party is in power in the North and student fees there stand at £5,000 per year. Even when we have completed the programme of increases, the level of the registration charge will be nothing of that order. In the remainder of the United Kingdom, students are charged fees of £9,000 each year. We have been obliged to make difficult decisions. However, we are hopefully coming to the end of the series of budgets in respect of which it has been necessary to make such decisions. We gave a commitment to the Irish people that we would bring the economy back into balance, create a sustainable future for our children and protect social provision into the future rather than collapse all of these, as would have been the case if the policies espoused by the Deputy's party had been adopted.

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