Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. On the student assistance fund, I ask that this be made very accessible, particularly for people who on the face of it may appear to have a gross income that should sustain their needs, but it will not. I refer particularly to cases where there are two front-line workers in one family, yet they cannot afford to send their children to college.

The only way to do this is to look at the fees and have them reduced rather than having the different packages available. Sometimes it can be so complex that people cannot get access.

Colleges really need to look at what they are providing this year and the cost of those provisions. This of course relates to the gross underfunding of institutions, and they are trying to get students to carry the can for the chronic underfunding within the institutions themselves. There is gross unfairness in that because of an unaffordability element that really concerns me.

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