Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

All we hear from the Minister is that she is engaged with the students' unions, the HEA and institutions. She has mentioned that she is aware of some measures they may be taking. Will she enlighten us on what measures they are taking? If she is aware of measures being taken, I would like to know about them. I have no doubt that the students facing an accommodation crisis this summer would also like to know about them, but the reality is that there is nothing happening, apart from gathering reports to cover the Government's embarrassment about the fact that it has done nothing to try to address the issue. The figures show that the further away students are from a third level institution and the closer they are to the grant threshold and miss out on it, the lower their participation at third level. The chronic participation rate for these categories will only worsen as a result of the crisis. Added to this is the €1,000 increase in the student registration fee delivered by the Minister and the abolition of postgraduate grants entirely for postgraduate students. The Minister has come here today with nothing to tell us because the Government has done nothing to address the issue for the past three years. Unfortunately, many hard-pressed third level students across the country and the many leaving certificate students who have just completed their examinations will suffer as a result, yet the Minister can offer us nothing that indicates that she will take significant measures in the next 12 months to ensure the problem will not get worse next year.

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