Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)

I, too, welcome the students to the Gallery this evening. The last three budgets reduced the cost of third level student fees by €1,000 per annum as part of the wider cost-of-living packages introduced by the Government. I am pressing the Minister to continue these reductions in fees for students on an ongoing basis as they and their families are hard-pressed to afford them. The cost-of-living crisis is still very much with us. Some might say that €1,000 is not a very large sum of money in the modern world, but I can vouch for the fact that it is very large to students and their families. I have been contacted by students and their families from all corners of County Kerry. I know students who are rising at 5 a.m. to go to work to earn a few bob towards college. Accommodation, transport, food, books, etc., are extremely expensive in Ireland today, and this reduction in fees must be carried forward so that students can continue with their further education.

We are speaking about the hard-pressed middle here. They deserve a break and they deserve our support. It is particularly difficult for parents with two or three students going to college. Education of our youth is vital, not alone to them but also to the economy of our country. It is only right and fitting that we continue to invest in our students for all our futures. Every student should have the right to undertake a college degree or diploma in their chosen fields, professions and trades and should not be held back by onerous fees. I have already raised this important matter with the Minister. I previously did so on many occasions as a councillor in County Kerry, and I am calling on him again this evening to make a very strong cases for continued student fee reductions to the Minister for Finance and the Minister for public expenditure in the budgetary discussions. I am convinced that the Minister will deliver for our students and their futures and for all our futures in this budget and future budgets, as committed to in the programme for Government.

See this speech in context