Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is where I would like to get to but I do not want to mislead the House or students in how we will make progress in this issue. Students and families have been waiting too long for progress on this matter. We do not want to engage in a situation of creating an expectation that cannot be met.

I would be fascinated to know if the Deputy or anyone else in this House were the Minister and had a choice to make in the next budget between targeting the supports at students most in need, in terms of student grants, or reducing the registration fee, what would they do. Would they increase the grants and not reduce the fees, reduce the fees and not increase the grants or do a bit of both? These are genuinely the issues with which we will have to grapple in the coming budget. We are trying to put in place a moment in time each year in which my Department will publish a cost of education paper that sets out the options and allows us to debate them. I do not think it is a case of either-or. We should increase the student grant, which was fit for purpose ten years ago but is not now in terms of cost of living, and we should reduce the registration fee. We should do both. The policy paper sets that out as the direction of travel. We cannot do that at the expense of the core funding. I look forward to making progress with the Deputy and others on this in the coming months.

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