Mary Henry (Independent)

I would be grateful if the Minister of State would consider the position. These cases tend to crop up from time to time in awkward circumstances. For example, I dealt with one such case where the mother was an Irish national living here while the father was a non-national living abroad. He was sending money from abroad to pay the fees of four children. The fees charged to non-nationals are huge. A disruption occurred in the country where the father of these children was working and there was no possibility of sending any money at all out of it. The institution involved looked kindly on the plight of the last two children who were still in college in view of the fact that such a huge amount of money had to be paid.

Residency could be looked at as an important factor and I am grateful for the Minister of State's commitment to consider the position. I do not believe that there would be vast numbers of people involved. The people to whom I refer are paying tax and high fees in this country and the position could be the same with many others.