Joanna Tuffy (Labour)

I was unclear about the position of mature students from reading the documentation from the Department of Education and Science. Mature students obviously will form a growing part of those engaged in third level education. This issue arises frequently. Mature students are obviously in a different position from younger students; they often have financial commitments they would not have had when they were younger. They have families to keep, mortgages to pay and so on. The problem of support for mature students needs to be further investigated.