Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)

I thank all the students who are here today and all their families who are encouraging them to go to college. Parents now have to choose. If they have two children to go to college, they may not be able to afford it. Inflation costs at the moment are putting a massive strain on family life for the students and for all families. The Government has not provided adequate accommodation for students to go to college. The colleges do not have the accommodation. They have to try to get accommodation as close as they can to the college if they are lucky. The students now have to rent their accommodation two or three months before they go to college and pay for it now. We are doing it ourselves in our household. We have two payments already made on a house for students, with other parents, because they have no other place to go to college. That is the only way we can get them to college. That is because there is no student accommodation.

On top of this, the Government now wants to put €1,000 back on top of college fees. It is the reverse. It should be taking off another €1,000 and letting them get their education for free. They are the next generation that we want to educate. They have inflation and one in four families is doing without food. Students are working extra hours themselves during the summer and that money is going to pay for accommodation that the Government cannot provide to let them go to third level education. Where is it going to stop? If people work in this country, they are taxed. If they build something for themselves, they are doubly taxed as well on top of it. Now we have students who want an education and their family want them to be educated, which everyone in here seems to have always wanted, and the Government is putting more obstacles in their way. For God's sake, will ye see reality? There is no more left in these families. Every penny they earn, they pay tax and they put food on the table. They pay for the living standard they have. The writing is on the wall and it is telling the Government they are under so much pressure they cannot take any more. Now the Government wants to put the fees back up.

I am the Chair of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight and today we had the Central Bank in. We were talking about the extra money that is in the coffers from the taxpayers of Ireland. The Government will not give back to the students and the families who are actually paying for the taxes in the first place. No wonder you have your heads down over there. You cannot look me in the eye.

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