James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

I reiterate what I have said already. No decisions have been made. There is a budgetary arithmetic that has been spelled out by me and others, including the Tánaiste, the Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance and the Minister for public expenditure. It has been spelled out multiple times since that decision was made by the Government. That is the situation we find ourselves in, and that is where we will work towards in the budget. That is normal. If we look at last year, the temporary €1,000 reduction that has been applied in the last three academic years was not announced until October. This is not a new situation. That is why the Deputy’s party had a motion down last year and the year before. This is not novel, unique or unprecedented. This is actually the same situation that prevailed in the last three summers.

I will go into the budget, as will my colleagues, the Minister of State, Deputy Harkin, for the Department, and all the other Ministers across all the other Departments, and fight tooth and nail to get the best outcome for our stakeholders, in my case, students. Of course, we will. That is what we do. However, I cannot predict the outcome of that process. I cannot give the Deputy the budget results in July when the budget is in October, and she knows that. The Deputy also knows the situation in the North, to which I referred earlier in the debate. Her own party has student fees of €5,600, double what they are at their highest in the Republic, and is talking about putting them higher. That is either partitionist or hypocritical, or both.

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