Dáil debates
Tuesday, 8 July 2025
Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions
Third Level Fees
10:15 am
James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
I acknowledge that. We have heard talk in the past week about a scheduled increase and a plan and an increase and an announcement of increases. Let us be clear. We have had none of that. There has been a lot of hyperbole. Some of the Opposition leaders and others have hyped it up a little bit. I suggest they listen to the interview that I gave on RTÉ and maybe read the transcript. I have a copy and I could make it available to anyone in the House who wants it. Let us be clear what I said. I said that we have a budgetary situation where the cost-of-living package that was available last year is not available this year, so we will look at the question again. On what do we do instead - I am very clear that I said that - we engage on the cost of education, we explore the budget process and we go in looking for the best outcome for students. We will look it across all the different measures and all the different costs across the line. That is what I said. I think that is reasonable and clear. It is still my absolute position. We did not need the alarm, panic, fear and doubt that, I accept, has been planted in students' minds unfairly. I answered a straight question with a straight answer. I said I was going to go into the budget process, as happened the previous three summers. Students have been under a disservice by the reaction that ensued, not by anyone here but in the wider system.
No comments