Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy said students need clarity on it; I believe students have clarity on it. Tomorrow I will meet all student union presidents throughout the country in a meeting convened by the Union of Students in Ireland, USI. We regularly and I personally engage with student unions. I take the point about the millions. It is peculiar for the Deputy to suggest that because we are providing such a large amount of funding, it is difficult to navigate. I am saying to student unions on the ground and to college presidents that when we allocate money here in Dublin it is important that a conversation about how that is spent on the college campus involves students. Taking the mental health funding as an example, we have allocated an additional €3 million. This is real hard-earned taxpayers' money announced in the budget.

We are asking the college presidents to engage with the students' union to decide how best to spend that money in their college campus because that will vary from college to college. While I do not suggest there is not more that we need to do, by any fair metric more than €400 million being spent this year on student supports is a very large sum of money and represents a significant increase. Since this new Department has been established, students have been able to draw down from many more funding streams. I look forward to the SUSI review which will be instrumental in addressing the reforms required.

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