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

I thank the Minister and assure him that I will make an input into the review.

I also wish to raise the matter of the exclusion of online and part-time students. This particularly militates against students with disabilities who cannot go on campus or engage in full-time courses because of their conditions. This discrimination is totally wrong. I am concerned about those who are looking forward to studying next year. Given the current climate, we need to encourage more people to engage in third level education and to engage in upskilling and the way to do that is make it easier for them to access SUSI grants. I do not want them to have to wait until 2022 before they can get onto their chosen course because at that stage they could have a year completed. I ask the Minister to make changes to the system sooner rather than later so that we can include as many people as possible.

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