Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am certainly not ruling that out. I think we are right to keep a watching brief on all of those issues. One figure that I do have, which is perhaps in some way indicative of the financial impact of Covid on economic well-being, is the SUSI figures. They are provisional at the moment. From memory, I think approximately 72,500 people were awarded a SUSI grant last year and the total is approximately 77,000 this year. We have seen an increase in the number of people and that is even with the constraints of the current SUSI system.

One could ask what is vulnerable. Any of us can be vulnerable. I encourage any student feeling vulnerable or anxious to contact his or her university. This is not March. The doors were closed in March, but that is not the case now. Libraries and laboratories are open. One can go in and attend lectures. One can go to tutorials in small groups.

In response to Deputy O'Rourke's point, I do not like to deliver bad news but it is important to be honest for certainty. Levels 3, 4 and 5 will see the continuation of the bulk of lectures, in particular, online, in all likelihood for the rest of the college year. I am highly optimistic for the next academic year, based on our shared hopes for the vaccination programme, but we are obviously keeping this under review on an almost weekly basis.

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