Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister will know, people with disabilities have lower rates of progression to third level. My colleague, Senator Hoey, has been speaking on this recently. They have lower progression rates to third level than the general population. The Association for Higher Education Access and Disability, AHEAD, reported that approximately 12% of students disclosed a disability in a recent survey. The true figure may be as high as 20%. With regard to access to third level, further and higher education, this could be a fantastic tool to use into the future. The physicality of a university campus or further education facility does not have to be any kind of barrier to people engaging in learning. Remote learning will be a very significant part of that. As the Minister has said, the walls absolutely can be broken down. Within all that, we also need to understand that these institutions will need funding streams to roll that out.

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