James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

The once-off measures were welcome and were needed at the time but they were temporary in nature. I want to move the system onto permanent measures that are sustainable, costed, fair, equitable and baked into the system for evermore. That will be of far greater benefit to families, students and everybody in the system in the long run. Along with my colleagues across both parties and the Independents, I am fully committed to our programme for Government commitments. We will make progress in the coming college year but we have to be straight with people. To govern is to choose. Every decision comes with trade-offs. We have to be honest with people. Unlike the Opposition, I will not pretend every single need can be met in a single budget. The danger of calling for everything for everyone is that you risk standing for nothing at all. People know that nothing is free and that choices have to be made. They know the budget is the right place to make those choices.

Of course, it is important that we listen to students and parents who are struggling with the cost of education and who need real support in the coming college year. I have been hearing those voices ever since my appointment. I have been hearing them in the last number of weeks and months and ever since the day I took office. I have met with the USI and with students' unions and I look forward to meeting with more of them in the weeks and months ahead. Over the summer months, I will continue the consultation I started with an event in Croke Park in April that brought together all the key stakeholders, including the students' unions. I have listened to what was said as regards the measures that would be most impactful and most helpful to the system. This means putting in place policies that are sustainable and that will have an enduring impact rather than making promises on the fly.

We need to help students and parents with costs but we need to do it in a costed and sustainable way. That is why our major financial decisions are made through the annual budget process, where choices are weighed up and made in the best interests of our State. That is exactly how any approach to student fees has been taken over the past several years. Decisions are made in the annual budget and benefit students for the coming academic year. Sinn Féin knows that because it brought forward this same motion at the exact same point two years ago. At this point in the calendar in 2023, it brought forward this same motion, saying there was uncertainty. At the time, the Minister, Deputy Harris, replied and said what I am going to say now, which is that this will be dealt with in the budget cycle. That is the way it is always done. The point scoring and politics in this motion are disappointing because these kinds of on-the-fly, universal, uncosted, unfunded measures that promise something for everybody and one for everyone in the audience all add up eventually and it is at someone else's expense. We need to be clear about where we are going with this and we need to look to the budget to advance that.

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