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

I thank the Minister for that answer. It is a key priority for us. Almost all postgraduate maintenance grants, with the exception of the special grant, as the Minister mentioned, were removed in 2012. The special grant is for the extreme low end of the income spectrum and those very much most in need, but there is a huge number of other people who cannot afford to pursue postgraduate studies. In many cases, employers are looking to hire highly specialised graduates with postgraduate degrees, whether it be master's or doctorates. Apart from the societal and personal good that postgraduate study does, it is essential for our economic future to give as many people as possible the opportunity to pursue postgraduate studies. Taught postgraduate degrees are extremely high in cost. The removal of the grants was utterly inconsistent with the Government's stated approach, namely, that it was building a high skills, so-called smart economy. It was the opposite of smart. They say that smart flies Aer Lingus. The truth is that smart does not abolish postgraduate grants. It has an observable negative effect on participation rates in postgraduate education, and as told anecdotally by those students in and out of university.

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