Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)

I do not doubt the Minister's bona fides on this. It spans - the Minister referred to it there quite lightly - a number of Departments. We have significant challenges in housing. We have significant challenges in a different cost-of-living crises in terms of paying for groceries, for example, running a car, and the different type of relationship one has with parents at home on whether they are able to afford to contribute to one's living.

The Minister will agree that ensuring education is within reach for everyone will ultimately benefit our society and our economy. That is extremely important. If we can ensure that education is accessible and affordable to everybody in this society, it benefits Ireland as a whole in whatever aspect that may be with the understanding and realisation that, by increasing a student tuition fee, it creates an economic barrier for a lot of students. Although they may be able to access some bit of the grant, it still creates an economic barrier to that education that they so badly need.

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