Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am the Minister with responsibility for higher education and believe that providing everybody with an opportunity to access higher education is a good thing. I believe there is a societal and economic good and that is where we should be trying to get to. Obviously, I have to fit my Department's work into a broader piece of work that needs to be done and was being done previously by the Department of Justice and Equality and is now to be done by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, led by the relevant Minister, Deputy O'Gorman.

I met representatives of the Irish Refugee Council recently on this matter and we agreed to reconvene my discussions with them on the publication of the expert group report which, I understand, is due to be published tomorrow. I will make arrangements within the next four weeks to meet the Irish Refugee Council again in the light of the report of the export group and the work the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, will be leading on the White Paper which is due to be published by the end of the year. I am conscious we are now in October so the White Paper is due to be published in the next eight or nine weeks. I will be happy to engage further with the Deputy then.

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