Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State's answer has not provided any clarity to anybody. I would like him to clarify what is the position. Will students who have concessionary places lose out this September because of the review, or can he give a guarantee to this House that no students with concessionary places will lose out because of the review by his Department, that their place will be available on a concessionary basis as it always has been? That is the commitment we want to hear from him. We want to put at ease the concerns of the parents, in rural Ireland in particular, who are worried about this issue. As the Minister of State will note, a newspaper has run this story on the front page two days in a row and it did that because this issue is a matter of concern as a result of the confusion coming from his Department as to what is happening. The Minister of State needs to do those parents a favour and set out exactly what is happening and confirm that those students with concessionary places will not be subject to a review for this year, and then we will have to deal with what will happen next year. There has been three different stories and I want to know what is the correct story.

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