Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have an acute knowledge of the situation where many families are sending their children to college. At the moment I have two children in third level education and next year, we will have three of them there. It is one of the few disadvantages of having your children close together. Apart from that, it makes me conscious of the very high costs for the many families who are unable to get a grant. I am not complaining at all as we are well looked after and have a good salary in here but many families find it very difficult when they have children in college, particularly if they have more than one of them there at the same time, are not able to get a grant, and have to pay the fees.

Many families also come to us where their children have summer jobs and, because of that, they are put into a similar position. Those issues need to be addressed particularly in the context of the cost-of-living crisis which is gripping the whole country, as well as the high cost of rent. Many families I speak to from the west and from my constituency have children who want to go to college in Dublin because the course there suits and works best for them but simply cannot afford it because of the rent and the cost of student accommodation in Dublin. The same applies in Galway and in other cities where this cost is very high. This is an issue which will have a crippling effect on many people.

Many of the issues that were raised here today are valid and one which is core for me in the whole area of higher education is the impact it is having on our economy, on our services and on what we do into the future. It must be acknowledged that education is the greatest avenue out of poverty for people. If people can get into college and have that opportunity, they have a good chance of having a decent lifestyle afterwards. That opportunity has to be given to everyone, particularly people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

I also believe, and it was mentioned by my colleague and others here, that this is the case in respect of the services that are provided by people. I believe Deputy Gannon mentioned the automation of many things in our society but one thing that cannot be automated is care for people. Many of our caring services are devoid of qualified staff, from nurses to doctors and right through the whole way across society. Occupational therapists and speech therapists were mentioned. We need to be training more and more people in those professions to ensure that we can account for ourselves as we look into the future.

I welcome the provisions mentioned by the Minister this morning and it is great to see that happening. Unfortunately, many of our services for people with disabilities in this country are lacking because we simply cannot get the staff. One of the reasons for this is because we are not training enough of them. That has to be acknowledged and dealt with as quickly as possible. I will leave it at that.

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