Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)

The Minister has spoken in great detail about the various supports that exist for students, but the issue people want clarity on and need to know about is the question of how much the student contribution will be in September. The reason they are asking that question is because of his comments on "This Week". He opened this Pandora's box, and he has the capacity to close it if he so wishes. He was not helped by the contribution of the Tánaiste and his liberal briefings across media over the past number of days suggesting he was going to do something. That has actually compounded the confusion. Parents and particularly students need to know how much they will pay in September. It is not okay for the Minister and his colleagues to spend the next three months saying it is the normal budgetary process and they cannot talk about this. He needs to give people clarification. He opened this question. He needs to answer it.

See this speech in context