Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)

First, I want to deal with the different language and points that the Deputy has made before I come to the really important issue of Elaine, her children and her children's future. For the Deputy to use language such as “stacking the deck against students” does no justice to the seriousness of this cause and demeans the need for serious debate regarding important decisions that this country has to make. When the Deputy suggests that the Minister for higher and further education is looking to make decisions that disadvantage students, that he is looking to make decisions that worsen the prospect of students, not only do I know that the Deputy really does not believe that, but I know that, by making that charge, she devalues the serious issue she is raising in the debate. What the Minister, Deputy Lawless, is seeking to do, and what he will do with support from the Government, is look at how we make progress on the programme for Government, how we can deal with issues of affordability and how we can make progress on the affordability issues in higher and further education while dealing with all of the other important issues that Elaine and the rest of the country want to see us make progress on.

On the broad issue that the Deputy is raising on affordability, let me again state what we do. It is important to acknowledge what is there before we look at how it can be improved. It is important that even if these supports are not available to Elaine, they are available to other people. They are available to other citizens because we recognise the importance of the affordability of higher and further education and we are committed to looking at how that can be improved. The reality is that, as the Deputy puts that question to me today, 143,000 students and their families benefit from free fees. They benefit from that because they deserve to benefit from it. We know that for those 143,000 families, there are students who might not otherwise be able to go to college and benefit from the ability to have their prospects reshaped by going to higher and further education and studying further. The reality is that 60,000 students at the moment benefit from lower forms of student contribution, again, because they deserve to. The reality is that, today, 80,000 of our student population are benefiting from either no fees at all, because of the various schemes that are in place, or partial fees.

All of that is in place because of our desire and the commitment we have to ensure that for Elaine, and for all the other families across the country for whom affordability is an issue, there are supports in place to help. What we will be doing, as we move to the necessity of having more normal budgets in place year by year, is looking at how we can make progress, which we will, on the affordability and quality of, and access to, higher and further education. That is what the Government will do, and we will work with the Minister, Deputy Lawless, and the rest of the Government to make progress on that.

See this speech in context