Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Australian students graduate with up to $50,000 in debt and I know there are problems there with repayments. The overall point about a student loan scheme is that it represents a commercialisation of the third-level educational process, which I do not think is of value. How would the Department prevent that and prevent banks from capitalising on and looking at students as economic units they can make profit out of rather than looking at the educational benefit that students who have been educated at third level can contribute to our society and economy in the future? Is that something the Department will give active consideration to rather than just looking at the economics of a loan scheme?

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