Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not want to stray too far outside my remit as I do not have responsibility for that matter but I will be engaging with relevant Departments and Government colleagues on these issues. If we are serious about fixing access to further and higher education for people who have had experience of the care system - and we are - that will be interdependent on several other things happening across a range of Departments. I will certainly engage with colleagues and I am happy to engage further with the Deputy.

He is right to say young persons experience a moment of major transition from second level education into third level. It is a big moment in anybody's life. It is very different, however, to the quite serious cliff edge that a person leaving foster care immediately encounters. We all probably have a sense of that. Since my engagement with people who have had direct experience of the care system, I have a much better sense of it than I did previously. It has made us determined to try to support these students. There are a number of things on which we can try to move pretty quickly in terms of the access offices, flexibility around the student assistance fund, SAF, and examining the SUSI grant system. I am happy to have a further meeting or engagement with the Deputy on this matter.

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