Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)

Ireland is becoming the most expensive country in Europe to go to college. With the threatened withdrawal of the €1,000 assistance to parents, this will further be the case. Parents and students are making CAO decisions now about whether or not they can limit or pick cheaper courses or courses nearer to where they live, but the Taoiseach will not decide until July. Some 100,000 children are living in consistent poverty. College will become elitist once again, as it always was in decades past. The dropout rate among working class young people is 23%, compared with 11.5% in general. Full-time and part-time jobs are a necessity for working class youth going to college. Will the Taoiseach please give a commitment now, not in July as the cost-of-living crisis bites, that he will restore this? I welcome that there will be a protest outside Leinster House at 6 p.m. this evening, where young people will make their position crystal clear on this.

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