Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is one of those areas where we need to have a serious conversation, not only during Question Time. The Cassells report will look at the overall funding of higher education but we need to look at some of the policy decisions, and not only of this and the previous Governments. Let us do so on a non-political basis, if at all possible, because we are talking about education.

One of the factors with which nobody can argue is that if somebody coming out of post-primary education is unable to access higher education, whether due to economic reasons or whatever barrier is in place, the chances of that individual going back to education later in life decreases. That is something we need to rectify. The reality is that we are preventing people from accessing further and higher education based on their ability to pay. That is not a political point but a general education point. We all need to look at this issue seriously.

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